UC-NRLF 


GERMAN 
SOLDIER 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


THE 


GERMAN    SOLDIER 


IN   THE 


WARS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


BY 

J.  G.  ROSENGARTEN. 


SECOND  EDITION,  REVISED  AND  ENLARGED. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY. 
1890. 


Copyright,  1886,  by  J.  G.  RosENGARTEN. 


Copyright,  1890,  by  J.  G.  RosENGARTEN. 


In  Mentor j) 


OF 


ADOLPH    G.    ROSENGARTEN, 

Major  Fifteenth  Pennsylvania  (Anderson)  Cavalry. 


BORN  IN  PHILADELPHIA,  DECEMBER  29,  1838 ;  KILLED  IN  BATTLE  AT  STONE 
RIVER,  TENNESSEE,  DECEMBER  29,  1862. 


215601 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


THE  substance  of  the  following  pages  was  read 
before  the  Pionier  Verein  at  the  hall  of  the  German 
Society,  in  Philadelphia,  April  21,  1885.  It  was 
printed  with  some  changes  in  the  United  Service 
Magazine  of  New  York,  in  the  numbers  for  June, 
July,  and  August,  1885,  and  it  was  translated  and 
printed  in  German  in  full  in  the  Nebraska  Tribune, 
in  successive  issues,  between  June  20  and  October 
27,  1885, — the  last  number  being  a  supplementary 
article  by  the  translator,  Fr.  Schnake,  on  the  German 
Soldiers  of  the  Border  States.  It  was  subsequently 
published  in  a  pamphlet  of  forty-nine  pages  by  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  for  the  Pionier 
Verein.  That  edition  is  exhausted,  and  in  "reply 
to  numerous  applications,  showing  interest  in  the 
subject,  it  is  now  reprinted  with  many  corrections 
and  considerable  additions.  For  these  the  author 
is  indebted  most  of  all  to  the  Deutsche  Pionier  of 
Cincinnati  and  to  the  editor,  H.  A.  Ratterman,  the 
best  authority  on  all  subjects  concerning  the  Germans 

i*  5 


6 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


of  the  United  States,— and  among  others  to  Mr.  F. 
Melchers,  of  the  Deutsche  Zeitung,  Charleston,  South 
Carolina ;  Mr.  Herman  Dieck,  of  the  German  Derno- 
krat,  Philadelphia;  General  Lewis  Merrill,  U.S.A.; 
Colonel  John  P.  Nicholson  ;  Dr.  J.  de  B.  W.  Gardiner, 
U.S.A. ;  Prof.  O.  Seidensticker,  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania;  and  Mr.  George  M.  Abbot,  of  the 
Philadelphia  Library,— his  "  Bibliography  of  the  Civil 
War  in  the  United  States"  is  indispensable  for  a 
student  of  our  military  history.  Whatever  there  is  of 
merit  or  interest  in  these  pages  is  largely  due  to  the 
assistance  thus  liberally  given.  With  further  aid  in 
the  way  either  of  corrections  or  additions,  which 
will  be  gladly  received  and  gratefully  acknowledged, 
the  author  of  this  sketch  hopes  that  he  may  here 
after  be  enabled  to  make  it  better  worth  the  interest 
of  the  reader  and  the  importance  of  the  subject. 

J.  G.  R. 

PHILADELPHIA,  April  21,  1886, 

532  WALNUT  STREET. 


NOTE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 

Much  additional  matter  has  been  added.  A  trans 
lation  into  German  by  C.  Grosse  was  published  in 
Cassel,  Germany,  in  1890. 

September  i,  1890. 


THE    GERMAN    SOLDIER 


IN   THE 


WARS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


THE  share  of  the  Germans  in  the  wars  of  the 
United  States  is  by  no  means  limited  to  that  of  the 
Rebellion.  From  the  very  outset  of  their  settlement 
in  this  country  they  always  stood  ready  to  take  their 
place  in  its  defence.  On  the  borders  of  what  was 
then  the  West,  the  early  German  immigrants  were 
steady  in  their  support  of  the  British  flag  against 
their  hereditary  enemies,  the  French.  This  was 
natural  enough,  for  many  of  the  Germans  who  first 
came  to  this  country  did  so  in  order  to  seek  refuge 
from  the  French  invaders,  who  rode  rough-shod 
over  their  humble  homes  in  the  districts  of  Ger 
many  devastated  by  French  soldiers.  Even  among 
those  who  came  here  to  find  a  new  home  in  which 
they  could  worship  God  in  their  own  way,  while 


7 


8  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

they  sympathized  with  the  Quakers  in  their  doctrine 
of  not  bearing  arms  voluntarily,  the  German  blood 
did  not  easily  accommodate  itself  to  the  doctrine 
of  non-resistance,  and  when  they  could  not  make 
friends  of  the  Indians  by  peaceful  means,  the  German 
settlers  did  not  hesitate  to  take  up  arms  in  defence 
of  their  homes.  The  Germans  of  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York  responded  freely  to  the  summons  to  de 
fend  their  new  country  against  the  French  and  their 
allies,  the  Indians.  They  gave  freely  of  their  men 
and  their  means  to  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the  war 
of  the  Revolution.  They  took  a  full  share  in  the 
war  of  1812,  and  in  the  Mexican  war.  Finally, 
wherever  the  Germans  were  strongest  in  number, 
they  were  represented  in  even  more  than  propor 
tionate  strength  in  the  forces  raised  for  the  defence 
of  the  Union.  From  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
they  went  forth  in  great  strength  in  regiments  and 
individually.  They  saved  Missouri  to  the  Union, 
and  Ohio  and  Illinois  and  Indiana  and  Wisconsin 
and  Kansas  may  well  point  with  pride  to  their 
German  citizens  as  foremost  in  doing  their  duty  in 
war  and  in  peace.  The  story  of  their  achievements 
in  war  is  a  subject  on  which  little  has  hitherto  been 
said. 

The  Germans  from  the  Palatinate  had  been  scat 
tered   on   the   frontier,  facing    the    Indians   and   the 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  Q 

French  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  The  early 
settlers  in  South  and  North  Carolina  and  Georgia 
were  also  largely  recruited  from  the  Germans,  and 
they,  too,  -had  still  another  hostile  force  to  meet, 
that  of  the  Spanish*  troops  and  Indians,  whose 
masters  were  unwilling  to  see  their  territory  threat 
ened  and  diminished.  The  good  Moravians  gave 
up  their  settlements  in  Georgia  rather  than  fight, 
and  thus  lost  the  fruits  of  some  years  of  labor  in 
their  schools  and  churches.  The  sturdy  Protestants 
from  the  Palatinate  were  not  afraid  to  take  up  arms 
in  defence  of  their  own-  homes,  and  in  a  very  short 
time  the  British  government,  which  had  brought 
them  here  as  an  act  of  benevolence,  found  a  good 
return  in  the  services  rendered  by  the  German 
settlers  as  peace-makers  with  the  Indians,  and  when 
necessary,  as  soldiers  against  the  French  and  the 
Spanish  and  their  native  allies. 

Jacob  Leisler,  the  first  American  rebel,  was  born  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  and  came  to  New  York  as  a 
soldier  in  the  pay  of  the  West  India  Company.  He 
engaged  in  trade  and  took  sea-ventures,  on  one  of 
which,  in  1678,  he  was  captured  by  the  Turks,  and 
compelled  to  secure  his  freedom  by  a  large  ransom. 
He  was  a  rebel,  but  he  did  not  act  without  the  hearty 
support  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  nor  did  he  use  his 
power  corruptly  or  basely.  He  had  the  support  of 


10  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

a  large  and  growing  majority  of  the  people,  and  both 
by  political  and  social  alliances  with  the  best  men 
of  the  colony,  he  took  his  place  at  their  head. 
He  was  led  into  violence  by  his  passionate  fear 
and  hatred  of  the  Catholics,  and  although  he  was 
hanged  on  May  15,  1691,  the  victim  of  a  counter 
revolution,  Parliament  in  1695  passed  an  act  reversing 
the  attainder  of  Leisler  and  his  associates  and  an 
nulling  all  the  convictions.  The  act  not  only  recog 
nized  his  appointment  by  the  Assembly,  but  treats  it 
as  confirmed  by  letters  royal.  The  record  of  New 
York  is  indelibly  stained  by  the  cruelty  and  sacrifice 
through  political  malice  of  two  brave  and  active 
lives,  and  Leisler  is  another  instance  of  the  German 
soldier  serving  and  falling  for  his  adopted  country 
and  in  assertion  and  defence  of  principles  now  of 
universal  acceptance. 

In  1711,  Governor  Hunter  entered  upon  a  large 
scheme  for  introducing  laborers  into  the  province  of 
New  York.  He  found  them  in  the  German  districts 
known  as  the  Palatinate,  where  the  French  had  rav 
aged  the  country  and  impoverished  the  people.  He 
secured  from  the  British  government  a  grant  of  ten 
thousand  pounds  for  the  project,  and  entered  into  a 
contract  to  transport  the  immigrants,  and  to  maintain 
them  for  a  while,  in  return  for  their  labor.  The  num 
ber  is  commonly  stated  at  three  thousand  persons,  but 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  II 

authorities  differ  on  the  subject  At  a  hearing  in 
London  in  1720,  a  committee  of  the  Palatines,  as  they 
were  called,  placed  the  original  migration  at  between 
three  and  four  thousand;  statistics  show  that  two 
thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  went  upon 
the  lands  provided  upon  the  banks  of  the  Hudson, 
while  three  hundred  and  fifty-seven  remained  in  New 
York.  A  third  immigration  occured  in  1722.  Their 
coming  was  a  marked  event,  for  it  added  nearly  ten 
per  cent,  to  the  total  population.  Governor  Hunter 
declared  that  the  enterprise  involved  a  loss  of  twenty 
thousand  pounds.  They  found  homes  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  where  Palatine  Bridge  and  the  town  of  Ger 
man  Flats  preserve  their  memory.* 

John  Peter  Zenger  established  the  New  York  Weekly 
Journal  on  November  5,  1733.  He  came  over  when  a 
boy  in  the  Palatine  migration,  and  was  an  apprentice 
to  Bradford  in  Philadelphia.  Zenger  was  arrested  and 
imprisoned  by  Governor  Cosby  for  his  attacks,  the 
papers  containing  them  burned  by  the  hangman,  and 
the  matter  was  then  transferred  to  the  courts.  Zenger 
was  reproached  as  an  emigrant,  daring  to  touch  on  the 
royal  representative  and  his  prerogatives.  Arrested 
in  1734,  he  was  at  first  denied  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  yet 


*  Hendrich  Frey,  a  native  of  Zurich,  Switzerland,  settled  west  of 
Palatine  Bridge  in  the  Mohawk  Valley  before  1700. 


12  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

he  contrived  to  edit  the  Journal  from  his  prison. 
The  grand  jury  refused  to  find  a  bill  for  libel,  and 
proceedings  were  instituted  by  information  by  the 
Attorney-General.  Defended  by  Andrew  Hamilton, 
a  Quaker,  who  came  from  Philadelphia  specially, 
Zenger's  case  became  a  turning-point  on  the  great 
question  of  the  truth  justifying  a  libel.  Hamilton 
attacked  the  claim  of  the  governor,  denounced  the 
practice  of  information  for  libel,  and  asserted  that  this 
was  not  the  cause  of  a  poor  printer,  but  of  liberty  and 
of  every  American.  The  triumphant  result  secured 
by  Hamilton  has  made  his  name  famous  in  the 
judicial  history  of  America.  Zenger's  trial  overthrew 
the  effort  of  arbitrary  power  to  suppress  free  speech, 
to  control  courts  of  justice,  to  rule  by  royal  preroga 
tive.  The  jury  turned  the  judge  out  of  court,  and 
Zenger  was  sustained  in  the  right  to  criticise  the  ad 
ministration,  and  his  criticisms  were  declared  to  be 
true  and  just.  Zenger  therefore  gained  for  the  peo 
ple  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  through  it  their 
right  to  deliberate  and  act  so  as  best  to  secure  their 
rights. 

There  was,  indeed,  quite  a  characteristic  jealousy  of 
the  Germans  on  the  part  of  their  unwarlike  neighbors 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  not  a  little  of  the  hostility  which 
marked  the  treatment  of  the  early  German  settlers 
m  New  York  was  due  to  their  sturdy  indifference  to 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  13 

those,  both  Dutch  and  English,  the  great  land-owners, 
who  would  have  controlled  them  and  used  them  as 
feudal  serfs.  They  acknowledged  their  allegiance 
to  the  crown,  and  gladly  served  it.  They  refused 
to  submit  to  the  tyranny  of  great  landlords,  and 
on  that  account  soon  left  New  York  to  find  per 
manent  homes  under  the  kindlier  sway  of  the  Penns.- 
Pennsylvania  made  Conrad  Weiser  colonel  of  a 
regiment  of  volunteers  from  the  county  of  Berks, 
and  Governor  Morris,  in  1/55,  gave  him  command 
over  the  second  battalion  of  the  Pennsylvania  regi 
ment,  consisting  of  nine  companies.  In  the  defence 
of  the  borders  against  the  Indians  and  the  French, 
forts  were  built  by  the  German  settlers  above 
Harrisburg,  at  the  forks  of  the  Schuylkill,  on  the 
Lehigh,  and  on  the  Upper  Delaware.  The  Hon. 
Daniel  Ermentrout,  in  his  address  at  the  German 
Centennial  Jubilee  in  Reading,  in  June,  1876,  de 
scribes  the  Tulpehocken  massacre  in  1755,  just 
after  Braddock's  defeat,  the  barbarities  perpetrated 
in  Northampton  County  in  1756,  and  the  attack 
on  the  settlements  near  Reading  in  1763.  Against 
these  forays  the  Germans  under  Schneider  and 
Hiester  made  a  stout  resistance.  As  early  as  1711,  it 
is  said,  a  German  battalion,  mainly  natives  of  the 
Palatinate,  was  part  of  the  force,  a  thousand  strong, 
which  was  to  take  part  in  the  expedition  to  Quebec. 


14  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

While  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  kept  the  govern 
ment  from  exerting  its  full  strength,  the  Germans,  in 
spite  of  their  peace  principles,  stood  up  stoutly  for 
their  own  homesteads.  Berks,  Bucks,  Lancaster, 
York,  and  Northampton  were  then  the  frontier  coun 
ties,  and  from  them  came  the  men  who  filled  the 
German  regiments  and  battalions  of  the  Revolutionary 
war.  The  sufferings  inflicted  on  the  German  settlers 
were  not  without  their  influence  in  inspiring  their  de 
scendants  with  the  patriotism  which  made  them 
good  soldiers  both  in  the  Revolution  and  in  the 
war  of  the  Rebellion. 

In  Ratterman's  "  Geschichte  des  Grossen  Ameri- 
kanischen  Westens,"  Cincinnati,  1875,  are  many  inter 
esting  references  to  the  early  German  settlers  and  their 
military  services.  Law's  Mississippi  scheme  brought 
more  than  seventeen  thousand  Germans  from  the 
Palatinate,  who  made  settlements  throughout  what 
was  then  the  French  colony,  into  the  country  now 
included  in  Louisiana  and  the  adjoining  States  as  far 
north  as  Illinois.  Theirs  was  a  life  of  hardship  and 
constant  border  warfare  with  trie  Indians.  The 
country  through  which  they  settled  adjoined  that  in 
which,  in  1669,  John  Lederer,  once  a  Franciscan 
monk,  had  in  vain  striven  to  bring  his  German  coun 
trymen.  In  1773,  Frankfort  and  Louisville  were  set 
tled  by  Germans,  the  former  by  emigrants  from  North 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  15 

Carolina,  and  it  led  to  "  Lord  Dunmore's  War,"  in 
which  they  fought  the  Indians  and  gained  a  foothold. 

In  17/7,  Colonel  Shepherd  (Schaefer),  a  Pennsyl 
vania  German,  successfully  defended  Wheeling  from  a 
large  Indian  force.  In  the  operations  under  General 
Irvine  to  avenge  the  massacre  of  the  Moravian  settlers 
in  Ohio,  his  adjutant,  Colonel  Rose,  was  a  German, 
Baron  Gustave  von  Rosenthal.  Among  the  best  of 
the  Indian  fighters  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  there 
were  Germans, — Peter  Nieswanger,  Jacob  Weiser,  Carl 
Bilderbach,  Johann  Warth,  George  Rufner,  and,  fore 
most  among  them,  Ludwig  Witzel.  His  father,  born 
in  the  Palatinate,  came  to  Pennsylvania,  but  was  one 
of  the  early  settlers  in  Ohio;  his  four  sons  distin 
guished  themselves  by  their  heroism,  but  Ludwig's 
name  is  still  kept  alive  by  the  story  of  his  achieve 
ments,  He  died  in  Texas  and  was  buried  on  the 
shores  of  the  Brazos,  but  he  is  not  yet  forgotten. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  old  French  war,  the 
British  government,  under  an  act  of  Parliament 
passed  for  the  purpose,  organized  the  Royal  Ameri 
can  Regiment  for  service  in  the  colonies. 

The  Old  French  War  is  the  familiar  American  title 
of  what  is  known  in  Europe  as  The  Seven  Years' 
War,  which  raged  both  in  Europe  and  America  from 
1756  to  1763.  In  America  it  gave  the  colonists  a 
sense  of  their  own  strength  and  power,  for  the 


1 6  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

mother-country  appealed  to  them  for  help,  and  it 
was  freely  given  in  expeditions  to  Canada,  ending  in 
its  capture  by  Wolfe  with  officers  and  soldiers  largely 
supplied  by  the  colonies.  The  possession  of  Ameri 
can  colonies  was  an  important  factor  in  this  great 
struggle.  The  French  strove  to  fix  the  Alleghanies 
as  the  eastern  boundary  of  English  advance.  Eng 
land  was  led  by  its  colonists  to  aim  at  the  whole  con 
tinent  as  part  of  its  empire.  The  old  French  war 
made  soldiers  of  the  settlers  and  gave  them  confi 
dence  in  their  power  to  unite  against  a  common 
enemy.  Canada  was  wrested  from  France,  and  by  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  all  the  French  possessions  north  and 
west  of  the  United  States  were  finally  surrendered  to 
England.  Nothing  was  left  to  France  except  Louis 
iana  and  New  Orleans,  and  these  in  time  became  part 
of  the  United  States ;  but  it  was  the  old  French  war 
that  ruled  forever  that  men  of  English  speech  and 
blood  should  be  the  dominant  power  in  the  continent 
of  North  America. 

This  Royal  American  Regiment  was  to  consist  of 
four  battalions,  of  one  thousand  men  each.  Fifty 
of  the  officers  were  to  be  foreign  Protestants,  while 
the  enlisted  men  were  to  be  raised  principally  from 
among  the  German  settlers  in  America.  The  im 
mediate  commander,  General  Bouquet,  was  a  Swiss 
by  birth,  an  English  officer  by  adoption,  and  a  Penn- 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  17 

sylvanian  by  naturalization.  This  last  distinction  was 
conferred  on  him  in  compliment,  and  as  a  reward 
for  his  services  in  his  campaigns  in  the  western 
part  of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  and  his  Germans 
atoned  for  the  injuries  that  resulted  from  Braddock's 
defeat  in  the  same  border  region.* 

The  history  of  the  Royal  American  Regiment  is 
found  in  "A  Regimental  Chronicle  and  List  of  Officers 
of  the  Sixtieth,  or  the  King's  Royal  Rifle  Corps,  for 
merly  the  Sixty-second,  or  the  Royal  American  Regi 
ment  of  Foot,"  by  Nesbit  Willoughby  Wallace,  cap 
tain  Sixty- third  Rifles.  London,  1879,  8vo,  pp.  312. 

During  the  Parliament  of  1755  (Act  29,  Geo. 
2,  c.  5)  the  sum  of  eighty-one  thousand  pounds 
was  voted  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  regiment  of 
four  battalions,  each  a  thousand  strong,  for  service 
in  British  North  America;  by  the  same  Parliament 
an  act  was  passed  to  enable  His  Majesty  to  grant 
commissions  to  a  certain  number  of  foreign  Prot 
estants  who  had  served  abroad,  as  officers  or  engi 
neers  in  America,  only  under  certain  restrictions. 
The  Earl  of  Loudoun,  the  commander-in-chief  of 
the  forces  in  North  America,  was  appointed  colonel- 

*  One  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  interest  taken  in  this  organ 
ization  is  the  sermon  preached  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  which  was  printed  at  the  request  of  the 
colonel  and  officers. 

2* 


1 8  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

in-chief;  about  fifty  officers  commissioned,  or  rather 
less  than  a  third  of  the  whole,  were  Germans  and 
Swiss,  but  none  were  allowed  to  rise  above  the  rank 
of  lieutenant-colonel. 

The  men  were  chiefly  German  and  Swiss  Prot 
estants,  who  had  for  some  years  past  settled  in  Amer 
ica,  on  the  waste  lands  which  had  been  assigned  them 
by  the  British  government.  These  men,  from  their 
religion,  language,  and  race,  were  considered  to  be 
in  every  way  suitable  opponents  of  the  French.  On 
enlistment  for  three  years  they  were  obliged  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance  and  to  become  naturalized  sub 
jects,  but  they  were  to  serve  only  in  America.  This 
new  regiment  was  first  called  the  Sixty-second,  or 
the  Royal  American  Regiment  of  Foot.  At  the 
disbandment  of  Shirley's  and  Pepperell's  regiments, 
in  1756,  which  were  numbered  the  Fiftieth  and  the 
Fifty-first,  the  title  was  changed  to  the  Sixtieth,  or 
Royal  American  Regiment  of  Foot. 

I*1  17$7>  General  Abercrombie  succeeded  Lord 
Loudoun,  and  was  followed  in  1758  by  General  Sir 
Jeffery  Amherst.  In  1761  there  was  further  legis 
lation  (2d  Geo.  3,  c.  25)  in  reference  to  the  natural 
ization  of  foreign  Protestants,  in  favor  of  the  officers 
and  men  of  this  regiment.  In  1763-64,  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  Seven  Years'  war  with  France, 
the  third  and  fourth  battalions  were  disbanded. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  1 9 

In  1775  two  more  battalions  of  the  Sixtieth,  num 
bered  third  and  fourth,  were  raised  in  England, 
for  service  in  the  West  Indies,  and  these  were 
disbanded  'in  1783,  in  Nova  Scotia,  where  the  men 
settled.  In  1797,  Hompesch's  Mounted  Rifles  and 
Lowenstein's  Chasseurs  were  incorporated  with  the 
regiment  for  service  in  the  West  Indies.  Later,  Wai- 
stein's  Foreign  Light  Infantry  were  also  added  to  it. 
In  1799  a  sixth  battalion  of  Germans  was  added 
to  it.  In  1813  a  seventh  battalion  of  German  pris 
oners  of  war  was  organized.  In  1824  the  regiment 
was  made  a  British  corps.  In  October,  1824,  the 
motto  " celer  et  audax"  granted  for  distinguished  con 
duct  and  bravery  under  Wolfe  in  1759,  was  resumed. 
In  1850,  Prince  Albert  was  colonel-in-chief. 

The  list  of  services  contains  the  following  entries  : 

1757.  First  Battalion  in  Indian  Wars. 

Five  companies  under  Stanwix  in  Pennsylvania. 

Third  Battalion  at  Fort  Hunter  and  Fort  Wil 
liam  Henry. 

Second  and  Fourth  at  Lewisbourg. 

First  Battalion  under  Bouquet  in  South  Carolina. 

First  and  Fourth  at  Crown  Point  and  Ticon- 
deroga. 

1758.  Second  and  Third  Battalions  at  Lewisbourg. 
First  and  Fourth  under  Bouquet  and  Forbes  at 

Fort  Du  Quesne. 


20  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

1759.  Fourth  Battalion  under  Prideaux  at  Fort  Ni 

agara. 

Second  and  Third  under  Wolfe  at  Quebec. 
Fourth  under  Haldiman  at  Oswego. 
First  under  Amherst  in  Canada. 
Fourth   under  Sir  William  Johnson,  Bouquet, 

and  Stanwix,  and  Wolfe  at  Quebec. 

1760.  First,  Second,  and  Third  at  Quebec. 

1761.  First  in  Virginia. 

1762.  Third  at  Martinique  and  Havanna. 

1763.  First  under  Bouquet  at  Bushy  Run  and  Pitts 

burgh. 

1778.  In  Georgia. 

1779.  At  Savannah. 

1780.  At  Mobile,  in  Georgia,  and  the  Carolinas. 

1781.  At   Hobkirk's    Hill,    Guilford,    New    London, 

Yorktown. 

The  list  of  officers  includes  colonels  commandant  : 
J756.         John  Stanwix. 

Joseph  Duffeaux. 

Charles  Jeffereys. 

James  Provost. 
1757.         John  Hairland. 

George  Vincent  Howe. 
1758-9.     Charles  Lawrence. 

Robert  Monckton. 
1760.         James  Murray. 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  21 

1761.         William  Haviland. 

Marcus  Smith. 
1762-72.  Bique  Armstrong. 
1773-6.'     Frederick  Haldiman. 

William  Taylor. 
1777-8.     James  Robertson. 

John  Balling. 

Augustine  Prevost. 
1779-83.  Gabriel  Christe. 

Lieutenant-colonels  commandant : 
1755-7.     Henry  Bouquet. 

Frederick    Haldiman   (colonel   and    major- 
general,  1772). 

Russell  Chapman. 

Sir  John  St.  Clair. 
1759-80.  Frederick  Haldiman. 
1761-2.     Aug.  Prevost. 
1777-8.     William  Stiell. 

Lewis  Val.  Fuser. 
Captains : 

1755.  Rudolph  Faesch. 
Wittsteen. 
Kruelling. 
Wetterstrom. 
Steiner. 

1756.  Frederick   William    Weissenfels    (captain-lieu 

tenant,  22d  February). 


22  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

1756.   Des  Barres. 
Bentinck. 
Hesse. 
Ratzer. 
Brehm. 
Kleinbeil. 
Zimmermann. 
Winter. 
Von  Ingen. 

Michael  Schlaetler  was  chaplain  from  1756  to  1782. 
Horatio  Gates  was  major  in  1765. 
Courtland  Schuyler  was  captain  in  1790. 
Smollett's  "  History  of  England,"  vol.  iii.,  ch.  24,  p. 
214,  s.  a.  1755,  says,  "The  next  object  of  the  im 
mediate  attention  of  Parliament  in  this  session 
[opened  November  13]  was  the  raising  of  a  new  regi 
ment  of  foot  in  North  America,  for  which  purpose  the 
sum  of  £80,178  i6s.,  to  which  the  estimate  thereof 
amounted,  was  voted.  This  regiment,  which  was  to 
consist  of  four  battalions  of  a  thousand  men  each,  was 
intended  to  be  raised  chiefly  out  of  the  Germans  and 
Swiss,  who,  for  many  years  past,  had  annually  trans 
planted  themselves  in  great  numbers  to  the  British 
plantations  in  America,  where  waste  lands  had  been 
assigned  them  upon  the  frontiers  of  the  provinces; 
but,  very  injudiciously,  no  care  had  been  taken  to  in 
terning  them  with  the  English  inhabitants  of  the 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  23 

place.  To  this  circumstance  it  is  owing  that  they 
have  continued  to  correspond  and  converse  only  with 
one  another ;  so  that  very  few  of  them,  even  of  those 
who  have  been  born  there,  have  yet  learned  to  speak 
or  understand  the  English  tongue.  However,  as  they 
were  all  zealous  Protestants,  and,  in  general,  strong, 
hardy  men,  and  accustomed  to  the  climate,  it  was 
judged  that  a  regiment  of  good  and  faithful  soldiers 
might  be  raised  out  of  them,  particularly  proper  to 
oppose  the  French,  but  to  this  end  it  was  necessary 
to  appoint  some  officers,  especially  subalterns,  who 
understood  military  discipline,  and  could  speak  the 
German  language;  as  a  sufficient  number  of  such 
could  not  be  found  among  the  English  officers,  it  was 
necessary  to  bring  over  and  grant  commissions  to 
several  German  and  Swiss  officers ;  but  as  this  step, 
by  the  act  of  settlement,  could  not  be  taken  without 
the  authority  of  Parliament,  an  act  was  now  passed 
for  enabling  His  Majesty  to  grant  commissions  to  a 
cectain  number  of  foreign  Protestants,  who  had  served 
abroad  as  officers  or  engineers,  to  act  and  rank  as 
officers  or  engineers  in  America  only." 

1756. — The  command-in-chief  of  all  the  forces  in 
America  was  conferred  upon  the  Earl  of  Loudoun. 
Over  and  above  this  command,  he  was  now  appointed 
governor  of  Virginia,  and  colonel  of  a  royal  American 
regiment,  consisting  of  four  battalions,  to  be  raised 


24  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

in  that  country,  and  disciplined  by  officers  of  experi 
ence,  invited  from  foreign  service. 

Bancroft's  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  vol.  iii. 
p.  155  (ed.  1876):  "On  the  I5th  of  June,  1756,  arrived 
the  forty  German  officers  who  were  to  raise  recruits 
for  Loudoun's  royal  American  regiment  of  four  thou 
sand. 

1758. — Forbes,  who  had  the  command  as  a  brigadier 
(of  the  expedition  against  Fort  Du  Quesne),  was 
"joined  by  three  hundred  and  fifty  royal  Americans." 
Bouquet  was  their  commander. 

1759. — In  the  campaign  against  Canada,  "the  west 
ern  brigades,  commanded  by  Prideaux,  included  a 
battalion  of  royal  Americans."  They  served  under 
Wolfe  at  the  capture  of  Quebec. 

r7^3- — Bouquet  won  the  battle  of  Bushy  Run,  and 
again  in  1764  led  a  large  force  into  "the  heart  of 
Ohio." 

The  first  colonel  of  the  regiment  was  Lord 
Loudoun,  and  the  four  battalions  were  commanded 
by  Stanwix,  Dufifeaux,  Jeffereys,  and  Provost.  Lord 
Howe  was  commissioned  colonel  in  1757,  when  he 
was  first  ordered  to  America.  The  regiment  itself 
still  exists  as  the  Sixtieth  of  the  line  of  the  British 
army.  Bouquet  himself  died  in  1765,  at  Pensacola, 
just  after  he  had  received  the  thanks  of  the  As 
sembly  of  Pennsylvania  for  his  victory  at  Bushy 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  2$ 

Run  in  1763.  It  was  to  the  Germans  of  his  force 
that  is  due  much  of  the  credit  of  this  action,  mak 
ing  amends  for  the  disaster  of  Braddock's  defeat. 
A  chaplain  of  this  regiment,  who  shared  in  its 
operations  at  Louisburg  and  on  the  frontiers,  the 
Rev.  Michael  Schlatter,  died  at  Chestnut  Hill, 
Philadelphia,  in  1790,  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  pension 
from  the  British  government,  although  he  had 
proved  himself  a  good  patriot  in  the  Revolutionary 
war.  His  descendants  were  well  known  as  success 
ful  merchants  in  Philadelphia,  while  his  own  mem 
ory  is  honored  by  a  biography  giving  an  account 
of  his  varied  services  to  the  church. 

Every  reader  of  history  will  recall  the  atrocities 
inflicted  by  Louvois  in  the  Pfalz  (or  Palatinate)  in  the 
wars  of  le  Grand  Monarque.  Yet  very  few  of  those 
who  read  Macaulay's  brilliant  account  of  these  cruel 
ties  are  aware  how  closely  the  facts  are  related  to  the 
history  of  our  own  country  and  our  own  common 
wealth.  Louvois  was  one  of  the  ablest  promoters  of 
the  early  settlement  of  Pennsylvania,  as  he  drove  a 
great  body  of  the  people  of  the  Pfalz  across  the  ocean 
by  his  atrocities  and  devastations.  How  largely  they 
constituted  the  German  population  of  Pennsylvania  is 
shown  by  the  close  relation  of"  Pennsylvania  Dutch" 
to  the  dialect  of  the  Pfalz.  It  was  to  New  York  that 
the  first  of  these  Palatine  emigrants  made  their  way, 

3 


26  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

but  as  early  as  1710  we  hear  of  them  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  Tulpehocken  was  settled  by  Germans  who  had 
been  swindled  out  of  their  lands  in  New  York  almost 
before  they  had  been  well  warmed  in  their  new  homes. 
To  Michael  Schlatter  the  Reformed  German  Church 
looks  back,  as  do  the  Lutherans  to  Henry  Melchior 
Muhlenberg,  as  the  man  who  put  their  church  on  a 
firm  footing  of  organization  and  methods.  He  was 
not  Muhlenberg's  equal  in  soundness  of  judgment 
and  unvarying  success  as  a  leader,  as  was  shown 
by  the  misstep  he  took  in  the  matter  of  the  German 
School  Society, — an  organization  designed  to  hasten 
the  Anglicization  of  the  German  population,  and  prob 
ably  effective  to  this  day  in  retarding  that  process. 
Schlatter  was  unwise  enough  to  take  part  in  this  plan, 
and  thus  to  forfeit  the  confidence  of  his  countrymen.* 
Michael  Schlatter  was  born  at  St.  Gallen,  Switzer 
land,  July  14,  1716;  was  educated  at  the  University 
of  Helmstedt,  in  the  Duchy  of  Brunswick,  and  in 
Holland.  He  served  as  assistant  pastor  at  Wigol- 
dingen,  Canton  Thurgau,  in  Switzerland,  and  then 
removed  to  Holland;  went  to  Boston  in  1746,  and 
then  to  Philadelphia.  He  was  sent  out  by  the  Re 
formed  Synod  of  Amsterdam.  After  laboring  among 

*  See  American,  September  4,  1886,  and  Prof.  R.  E*  Thompson's 
notice  of  Rev.  D.  J.  Dubbs's  "Historic  Manual  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  the  United  States."  8vo,  Lancaster,  1886. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  2/ 

the  Germans  for  five  years,  at  various  places  in  Penn 
sylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  he  returned  to 
Europe  and  made  known  to  ecclesiastical  bodies  in 
Holland  the  neglected  state  of  education  among  the 
German  people  in  America.  His  account  awakened 
much  interest  in  the  subject  among  the  pious  Nether- 
landers,  which  in  a  short  time  extended  to  the  Pala 
tinate,  Switzerland,  and  Great  Britain,  and  the  Society 
for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge  among  the  Ger 
mans  in  America  was  organized  in  London, in  1754,  to 
assist  the  Rev.  Mr.  Schlatter,  who,  with  a  salary  of 
one  hundred  pounds,  was  to  be  the  supervisor  and 
visitor  of  schools  in  Reading,  York,  Easton,  Lan 
caster,  Skippack,  and  Hanover.  The  children  of  the 
German  settlers  were  to  be  instructed  in  English  by 
teachers  speaking  both  German  and  English.  The 
Rev.  Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg  heartily  commended 
the  project,  and  suggested  the  establishment  of  a  Ger 
man  newspaper  and  a  German  printing-office,  where, 
besides  the  newspaper,  school-books,  almanacs,  tracts, 
circulars,  etc.,  should  be  issued.  This  was  success 
fully  accomplished  during  1755.  Mr.  Schlatter  estab 
lished  schools  at  Tulpehocken  in  Berks  County,  and 
at  Heidelberg,  now  in  Lebanon  County.  The  oppo 
sition  to  these  schools  was  led  by  Christopher  Sauer, 
the  well-known  Germantown  printer,  who  remon 
strated  sharply  against  the  suggestion  implied  that 


28  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

the  Germans  would  join  the  French  in  a  war  against 
England.  In  1756,  Schlatter  reported  that  three  of 
the  schools  planted  near  the  frontiers  had  been  en 
tirely  broken  up,  as  the  people  had  been  for  near  a 
year  flying  from  place  to  place  before  the  coming  war. 
Mr.  Schlatter  remained  in  charge  of  the  schools  until 
1757.  In  that  year  he  became  a  chaplain  in  the  British 
army  in  the  American  provinces.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  war  of  Independence  he  again  acted  as  chap 
lain  in  the  British  army,  but  in  a  short  time  espoused 
the  American  cause,  and  in  September,  1777,  when 
the  British  held  Germantown,  he  was  imprisoned,  and 
his  house  near  Chestnut  Hill  ransacked.  He  died  in 
October,  1790,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four. 

In  1755,  after  Braddock's  defeat,  there  was  great 
jealousy  of  the  Roman  Catholics  as  working  against 
the  British  government  and  the  Protestant  religion. 
Even  the  priests  at  Goshenhoppen  were  suspected 
of  being  spies  for  the  French  at  Du  Quesne.  Weiser, 
as  justice  of  the  peace  of  Berks  County,  joined  in 
a  warning  letter  to  Governor  Morris.  Weiser  and 
Schlatter  had  been  made  visitors  of  the  schools 
erected  in  Reading,  York,  Lancaster,  Easton,  Skip- 
pack,  and  Hanover,  to  instruct  the  Germans  in  Eng 
lish. 

Christopher  Sauer  was  bitterly  opposed  to  these 
plans,  both  from  his  opposition  to  any  established 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  29 

church  and  from  his  desire  to  keep  German  as  the 
language  of  the  people. 

Peter  Muhlenberg,  later  general,  left  the  school  at 
Halle  to  enlist  in  a  German  troop,  but  was  liber 
ated  and  allowed  to  return  home.  The  story  of  his 
leaving  the  pulpit  to  become  a  soldier  is  too  well 
known  to  need  repetition.  The  old  grandfather  fully 
approved  the  son's  exchange  of  the  gown  for  the 
sword,  and  watched  with  pride  his  subsequent  civil 
honors.  The  second  son,  Frederick,  left  the  church 
to  become  a  member  of  Congress  in  1779,  especially 
to  represent  the  Germans.  Sons  and  grandsons  too 
served  with  honor  in  the  army. 

In  1775  the  vestries  of  the  German  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  churches  at  Philadelphia  sent  a  pamphlet 
of  forty  pages  to  the  Germans  of  New  York  and 
North  Carolina,  stating  that  the  Germans  in  the  near 
and  remote  parts  of  Pennsylvania  have  distinguished 
themselves  by  forming  not  only  a  militia,  but  a  select 
corps  of  sharp-shooters,  ready  to  march  wherever  they 
are  required,  while  those  who  cannot  do  military 
service  are  willing  to  contribute  according  to  their 
abilities.  They  urged  the  Germans  of  other  colonies 
to  give  their  sympathy  to  the  common  cause,  to  carry 
out  the  measures  taken  by  Congress,  and  to  rise  in 
arms  against  the  oppression  and  despotism  of  the 
English  government.  The  volunteers  in  Pennsylvania 


30  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

were  called  "  Associators."  The  Germans  among 
them  had  their  head-quarters  at  the  Lutheran  school- 
house  in  Philadelphia. 

In  1750  the  German  settlers  in  Pennsylvania  were 
estimated  at  90,000  out  of  a  total  population  of 
270,000,  and  in  1790  at  144,600,  while  in  1890  it 
is  believed  that  one-third  of  its  people  are  either 
German  or  of  German  descent.  Every  new  body  of 
emigrants  brought  its  teachers.  The  11,294  German 
Protestants  who  came  to  London,  on  their  way  to 
America,  had  with  them  eighteen  school-masters,  and 
in  1749  twelve  came  to  Pennsylvania  with  German 
emigrants.  Conrad  Weiser  was  called  "  The  School 
master  of  Tulpehocken"  about  1/35,  so  prominent 
was  he  in  that  capacity  before  he  became  the  inter 
preter  and  agent  of  the  government  in  its  dealings 
with  the  Indians.  It  was  in  response  to  appeals  to 
the  Fatherland,  that  Muhlenberg,  the  father  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  Pennsylvania,  came  in  1742,  and 
Schlatter,  of  the  Reformed  Church,  in  1746,  to  advance 
the  cause  of  education  among  the  Germans.  Schlat- 
ter's  appeal  was  answered  by  liberal  gifts  both  from 
the  continent  and  in  England,  where  the  king  headed 
the  list  of  subscribers. 

But  from  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania  there  went 
forth  an  influence  among  the  Indians  more  potential 
in  saving  the  country  from  desolating  border  warfare 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  3! 

than  soldiers  or  fortifications.  While  the  French  were 
striving  to  make  the  Indians  their  allies  in  war,  the 
Germans,  and  especially  the  Moravians,  were  work 
ing  successfully  to  convert  the  savages  into  peace 
ful  Christians,  and  to  make  them  good  neighbors, 
useful  and  obedient  to  the  authorities,  and  a  strong 
defence  against  the  inroads  of  their  more  savage 
brethren,  influenced  by  the  French.  The  Moravians 
sent  their  members  out  to  preserve  peace;  their 
knowledge  of  the  Indians  and  their  languages,  their 
intercourse  and  intermarriages,  had  secured  the  con 
fidence  of  the  untutored  savages. 

Parkman,  in  his  last  work,  "  Montcalm  and  Wolfe 
in  the  French  War  of  1759,"  describes  at  length  the 
mission  undertaken  by  Christian  Frederick  Post  as 
envoy  to  the  hostile  tribes  on  the  distant  Ohio.*  The 
Moravians  were  apostles  of  peace,  and  they  succeeded 
to  a  surprising  degree  in  weaning  their  Indian  con 
verts  from  their  ferocious  instincts  and  warlike  habits. 
Post  boldly  presented  himself  among  those  who  were 

*  Frederick  Post  was  a  German  Moravian  who,  as  early  as  1761, 
settled  in  what  is  now  Bethlehem  Township,  Stark  County,  Ohio, 
where  he  built  a  block-house  and  cleared  a  few  acres  of  forest,  and 
established  a  mission  settlement.  The  family  of  Heckewelder  joined 
him  there,  but  later  settled  at  Gnadenhutten,  in  Tuscarawas  County. 
The  site  of  the  former  is  marked  by  a  few  remains  of  the  old  block 
house. 


32  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

still  savage,  and  his  first  reception  was  by  a  crowd  of 
warriors,  their  faces  distorted  with  rage,  threatening 
to  kill  him.  Soon  after  the  French  offered  a  great 
reward  for  his  scalp,  but  Post,  undaunted,  declared  to 
the  Indians  the  coming  of  an  army  to  drive  off  the 
French,  and  in  return  received  the  promise  of  the 
warlike  savages  to  keep  the  peace.  After  a  conference 
at  Easton,  Post  again  went  on  a  mission  of  peace  to 
the  tribes  of  the  Ohio.  The  small  escort  of  soldiers 
that  attended  him  as  far  as  the  Alleghany  was  cut  to 
pieces  on  its  return  by  a  band  of  the  very  warriors  to 
whom  he  was  carrying  his  offers  of  friendship.  His 
overtures  were  accepted,  and  the  Delawares,  Shaw- 
nees,  and  Mingoes  ceased  to  be  enemies.  The  Eng 
lish  soldiers  failed  by  force  of  arms  to  accomplish 
what  the  German  missionary  had  successfully  at 
tained.  Thus  the  work  of  the  Moravians  in  their 
quiet  home  at  Bethlehem  had  enabled  their  repre 
sentative  to  gain  the  friendship  and  alliance  of  the 
Indians,  and  to  weaken  the  force  of  the  French  and 
proportionally  strengthen  that  of  the  English,  and 
this  was  in  no  small  degree  an  important  factor  in  the 
final  overthrow  of  the  French  in  America. 

Besides  the  Swiss-German  settlement  in  North 
Carolina  under  Graffenried,  there  were  other  large 
colonies  brought  to  this  country.  Law  brought  in 
1716-17  more  than  two  thousand  Palatines  and  Swiss, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  33 

to  help  establish  his  new  dukedom  on  the  Arkansas 
near  its  mouth  at  the  Mississippi.  They  were  left  for 
five  years  at  Biloxi,  near  Mobile,  almost  without  any 
of  the  promised  aid,  and  some  perished  of  fever  or 
starvation,  some  reached  the  English  and  Spanish 
settlements,  a  few  returned  home,  and  about  three 
hundred  established  themselves,  in  1722,  at  Attakapas, 
opposite  New  Orleans,  where  they  finally  became 
fairly  prosperous. 

A  Swedish  captain,  Von  Aaronsburg,  married  to  a 
Swabian,  in  1716  brought  Alsatians  and  Wurtem- 
bergers,  in  answer  to  Law's  promises,  to  Louisiana, 
and  established  them  in  St.  Charles's  Parish,  six 
hours'  journey  above  New  Orleans ;  they  flourished 
so  that  in  1750  theirs  was  the  best  settlement  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  "  Lac  Allemand"  and  "  Bayou 
Allemand"  still  preserves  the  nationality  of  its  first 
settlers. 

Between  1735  and  1741  a  large  number  of  Men- 
nonites  and  Moravians  came  to  Georgia,  and  in  1752 
a  whole  congregation  from  Swabia,  under  their  pastor 
Rabenhorst,  and  their  settlements  were  made  on  St. 
Simon's  Island  and  near  Savannah.  In  South  Caro 
lina  there  were  colonies  of  Germans  established  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne,  on  the  shores  of  the  Saluda 
and  the  Broad  River,  the  Congaree,  and  the  Wateree. 
In  1733,  Colonel  Peter  Pury  established  a  town  named 


34  1HE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

after  him.  In  1765  a  German  officer  named  Stiimpel, 
with  help  in  money  and  arms  from  England,  brought  a 
large  number  of  Germans  to  Charleston,  and  estab 
lished  them  not  far  from  the  earlier  settlements  of  their 
countrymen.  In  North  Carolina  there  were  consider 
able  German  colonies  established,  and  many  Germans 
came  from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  numbering 
fifteen  hundred  souls.  The  Moravians  bought  one 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  there  in  1751,  and 
established  Bethabara,  Salem,  and  Bethany. 

Virginia  had  its  own  German  emigrants,  and  many 
others  came  from  Pennsylvania.  Stephensburg,  in 
Frederick  County,  was  settled  in  1732  by  Peter 
Stephens  and  Jost  Heib;  Shepherdstown  in  1762  by 
Colonel  Schafer  (Shepherd),  who  brought  there  a 
number  of  German  mechanics  ;  the  place  was  first 
called  Mecklenburg.  In  1734  there  were  four  Ger 
man  Lutheran  churches  in  Northern  Virginia. 

In  Maryland,  Frederick,  Hagerstown,  and  Middle- 
town  were  the  centres  of  large  German  settlements. 

As  early  as  1716  the  Germans  in  the  Carolinas  had 
to  defend  themselves  against  the  Indians,  and  in  1727 
in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  there  was  open  war 
between  the  white  men  and  the  red  natives.  From 
1744  to  1748,  and  again  from  1755  to  1763,  the  French 
urged  the  Indians  to  repeated  attacks  on  the  border 
settlers.  In  Lancaster  there  was  a  strong  fort  built, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  35 

and  fifteen  companies  of  militia  organized  for  its 
defence.  The  journal  of  Conrad  Weiser  shows  that 
the  Indian  attacks  fell  heavily  on  the  Germans  who 
had  settled  on  the  borders ;  but  he  and  his  sons  went 
in  and  out  among  the  Indians,  bearing  a  charmed  life, 
while  others  were  sacrificed  to  the  parsimony  of  the 
provincial  government  and  their  own  faith  in  the 
Indians. 

Michael  Schlatter  came  to  America  in  1746,  and  six 
years  later  secured  six  more  clergymen  from  Germany 
to  help  him  in  his  task.  He  was  a  man  of  thorough 
education,  and  worked  hard  for  the  successful  establish 
ment  of  public  schools.  He  represented  the  German 
Reformed  Church,  as  the  elder  Muhlenberg  typified  all 
that  was  best  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  was  also 
active  in  bringing  educated  preachers  to  this  country 
from  Germany,  and  thus  helping  to  spread  the  advan 
tages  of  German  scholarship  throughout  the  commu 
nity.  Between  1745  and  1770  more  than  fifty  clergymen 
came  to  Pennsylvania,  educated  at  German  universi 
ties.  The  Harvard  professors  of  that  day  spoke  with 
admiration  of  the  thorough  knowledge  of  Latin 
shown  by  these  Germans,  in  speaking  as  well  as  writ 
ing  and  reading  that  language.  One  of  their  number, 
Dr.  Kuntze,  was  the  founder  of  the  Hebrew  and  Ori 
ental  instruction  in  this  country.  The  schools  estab 
lished  by  the  German  churches — in  Ephrata  in  1733, 


36  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

in  Warwick,  Nazareth,  and  Litiz  in  1740,  in  Lancaster 
in  1730,  and  in  Philadelphia  in  1760 — were  attended 
by  scholars  from  far  and  near,  of  all  religious  tenets. 
Franklin  and  Provost  Smith  joined  Conrad  Weiser, 
Michael  Schlatter,  and  others  in  organizing,  both  in 
this  country  and  in  Holland,  Friesland,  and  England,  a 
society  for  the  better  education  of  the  youth  of  Penn 
sylvania  in  both  English  and  German,  and  the  local 
schools,  under  the  influence  of  the  clergymen,  were 
much  better  in  the  German  than  in  the  English  districts. 
In  New  York  the  lands  given  to  the  Germans  for  their 
schools  were  taken  away  and  no  redress  was  ever  se 
cured,  other  than  an  unfulfilled  promise  to  give  some 
compensation.  A  German  high  school  in  Lancaster 
in  1787  was  the  reward  of  the  Germans  who  had 
served  in  the  Revolution. 

The  Germans  of  North  Carolina  took  their  stand 
for  independence  in  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of 
May  19,  1 775, 'and  they  and  their  fellow-countrymen 
of  both  Carolinas  and  of  Georgia  followed  their  brave 
words  by  deeds.  Elbert  and  Mahem  and  Leonhardt 
Helm  were  typical  German  soldiers,  and  Freiherr  von 
Glassbeck  and  Michael  Rudolph  distinguished  them 
selves  by  deeds  that  ought  never  to  be  forgotten. 
The  fact  that  De  Kalb  lost  his  life  on  Southern  soil  has 
made  his  fame  part  of  its  local  history.  Born  in  1717, 
he  was  trained  in  the  Imperial  and  Austrian  service, 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  37 

then  gained  honor  and  distinction  in  that  of  France, 
and  in  1757  was  sent  on  a  military  mission  to  the  colo 
nies;  returning  in  1777,  he  became  a  major-general 
in  the  Continental  army,  only  to  fall  at  Cowpens,  at 
the  head  of  German  soldiers  from  Maryland  and 
Delaware.  The  honors  awarded  his  memory  by  the 
Congress  of  that  day  were  worthily,  but  tardily, 
carried  into  execution  in  our  own  time. 

The  services  of  the  early  German  settlers  in  North 
Carolina  were  lovingly  commemorated  by  one  of  their 
descendants,  General  Rufus  Barringer,  at  the  Luther 
Memorial  Meeting  at  Concord,  N.C.,  in  November, 
1883,  when  he  dwelt  on  their  patriotism  in  the  Revolu 
tion,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  in  the  great  Confederate 
conflict,  showing  that  it  is  a  stock  to  be  proud  of, 
alike  for  its  achievements  in  the  past  and  its  high 
standard  of  excellence  to-day.  On  all  sides  there  is 
abundant  evidence  that  the  German  settlers  in  the 
South,  largely  emigrants  from  Pennsylvania,*  carried 
with  them  hereditary  habits  of  thrift  that  made  them 
good  citizens  everywhere,  and  a  national  love  of 
liberty,  and  a  readiness  to  fight  for  it,  that  made  them 
good  soldiers  in  time  of  need.  Their  record  is  made 


*  Roosevelt,  p.  106,  note.  "  Annals  of  Augusta  County,  Virginia," 
by  Joseph  Waddell,  Richmond,  1888,  for  a  clear  showing  of  the  large 
German  admixture. 

4 


38  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

up  of  deeds  rather  than  words,  and  it  is  one  that,  as 
General  Barringer  shows,  well  deserves  to  be  pre 
served  and  rescued  from  oblivion. 

In  Kapp's  "  History  of  the  Early  German  Settlers 
of  New  York"  we  find  the  names  of  the  first  Ger 
man  soldiers,  those  who  bore  arms  in  defence  of 
their  hardly-won  homesteads  against  the  French  and 
their  allies,  the  Indians.  Among  them  were  the 
Weisers,  father  and  son.  The  elder,  John  Conrad, 
born  in  Wurtemberg,  came  to  this  country  a  few 
years  after  his  native  village  was  burned  by  the 
French  in  their  invasion  in  1693,  and  died  in  Penn 
sylvania  in  1746,  where  he  and  other  German  settlers 
found  refuge  from  the  unfair  treatment  of  the  wealthy 
New  York  land-owners.  Conrad  Weiser,  his  son, 
born  in  1696  in  Germany,  came,  with  his  father,  as 
a  boy  to  New  York,  and  after  a  brief  experience  of 
border  life  with  the  German  settlers  west  of  the  Hud 
son,  lived  with  the  Indians  long  enough  to  be  their 
fast  friend,  and  to  serve  as  their  intermediary  with 
the  whites,  helping  thus  to  preserve  the  peace  in  the 
midst  of  hostile  influences.  He  died  near  Reading,  in 
1760.  As  lieutenant-colonel  of  a  Pennsylvania  regi 
ment,  he  shared  in  the  hardships  of  the  "  old  French 
war,"  and  secured  from  the  allied  Indians  an  affection 
and  respect  which  stood  his  fellow-Germans  in  good 
stead  in  later  years.  His  daughter  was  the  wife  of 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  39 

the  elder  Muhlenberg,  the  first  of  that  name  to  come 
to  this  country,  and  the  mother  of  General  Muhlen 
berg  of  Revolutionary  fame. 

As  early  as  1711  the  elder  Weiser  had  led  his 
German  countrymen  in  an  expedition  to  Canada,  in 
defence  of  the  English  against  the  French.  England 
was  resolved  on  colonial  acquisition.  In  1709  a  fleet 
and  an  army  were  to  be  sent  from  Europe ;  from 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  twelve  hundred  men 
were  to  aid  in  the  conquest  of  Canada ;  from  the  cen 
tral  provinces  fifteen  hundred  men  were  to  assail  Mon 
treal,  and  in  one  season  Acadia,  Canada,  and  Newfound 
land  were-  to  be  reduced  under  British  sovereignty. 
The  colonies  kindled  at  the  prospect.  To  defray  the 
expenses  of  preparation,  Connecticut,  New  York,  and 
New  Jersey  then  first  issued  bills  of  credit.  St. 
John  (Lord  Bolingbroke)  formed  the  whole  design  of 
the  conquest  of  Canada ;  the  fleet,  consisting  of  fif 
teen  ships  of  war  and  forty  transports,  carrying  seven 
veteran  regiments  from  Maryborough's  army,  with 
a  battalion  of  marines  intrusted  to  Mrs.  Masham's 
brother  Jack  Hill,  lay  in  Boston  through  June  and 
July,  1711.  At  the  same  time  an  army  of  men  from 
Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  and  New  York,  Palatine 
emigrants,  and  about  six  hundred  Iroquois,  assembled 
at  Albany,  prepared  to  burst  upon  Montreal.  The 
total  failure  of  the  fleet  left  the  expedition  from 


4O  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Albany  no  option  but  to  return,  and  in  August  and 
September  it  was  disbanded.  To  this  force  belonged 
the  levies  raised  and  commanded  by  the  elder  Weiser. 
The  details  are  found  in  the  second  volume  of  Ban 
croft's  "History,"  at  pp.  239,  379,  381,  etc.  So  little 
is  known  of  this  expedition,  that  even  the  fact  of  its 
organization  has  been  questioned ;  but  Bancroft's  au 
thority  on  this  point,  as  indeed  on  almost  every  matter 
of  early  colonial  history,  is  final,  and  reference  can 
easily  be  made  to  those  invaluable  sources  of  informa 
tion,  the  New  York  Colonial  Documents,  the  Penn 
sylvania  Colonial  Records,  and  the  excellent  and 
growing  series  of  reprints  of  early  works,  enriched  by 
notes,  issued  by  Munsell  in  Albany  and  Clarke  in 
Cincinnati,  and  in  the  pages  of  several  historical  maga 
zines.  The  younger  Weiser,  in  1737,  boldly  went 
out  among  the  wild  tribes  of  native  Indians  and  suc 
cessfully  brought  them  to  make  peace  with  the  new 
-  settlers.  In  1748  he  penetrated  the  unknown  country 
west  as  far  as  the  Ohio,  and  in  1754  he  united  the 
friendly  Indians  in  a  strong  alliance,  which  served  very 
greatly  to  resist  the  French  intrigues  and  invasions. 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  distinguished  German 
soldiers  serving  in  the  French  army  in  America  was 
Baron  Ludwig  August  Dieskau,  a  French  general, 
born  in  Saxony  in  1701,  who  died  at  Turenne,  near 
Paris,  September  8,  1777.  He  was  lieutenant-colonel 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED  STATES.  41 

of  Marshal  Saxe's  regiment  of  cavalry,  served  in 
the  Netherlands,  became  brigadier-general  of  infantry 
in  1748,  was  commandant  of  Brest,  and  was  sent  to 
Canada"  in  1755,  with  the  rank  of  major-general. 
With  six  hundred  Indians,  as  many  Canadians,  and 
three  hundred  regulars,  he  ascended  Lake  Champlain 
to  attack  Fort  Edward,  which  was  defended  by  Gen 
eral  Johnson.  Defeating  a  detachment  sent  to  its  relief 
under  Colonel  Williams,  Dieskau  pursued  the  fugi 
tives,  hoping  to  enter  the  fort  with  them  ;  but  his  force 
was  routed,  and  he  was  severely  wounded  and  made 
prisoner.  After  a  long  residence  in  England,  he  was 
exchanged  in  1763,  and  returned  to  France,  where  he 
received  a  pension,  and  was  in  intimate  relations  with 
Diderot  and  the  other  leaders  of  literary  and  political 
thought  of  the  period.  In  the  tenth  volume  of  the 
New  York  Colonial  Documents,  p.  340,  etc.,  there  are 
printed  a  number  of  documents  relating  to  his  career. 
Besides  his  own  official  reports  and  those  in  which 
he  is  mentioned,  there  is  a  very  curious  composition 
of  his,  an  imaginary  interview  with  Marshal  Saxe,  in 
which  he  gives  his  old  master  a  very  vivid  picture  of 
the  strange  sort  of  warfare  he  had  seen  waged  in  the 
wilds  of  America.  Diderot,  it  is  said,  owed  many  of 
his  ideas  on  American  Indians  and  their  savage  life 
and  simple  forms  of  government  to  Dieskau's  very 
graphic  accounts,  drawn  from  his  actual  experience. 


42  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Altogether,  it  is  a  curious  picture,  this,  of  a  German 
soldier,  trained  in  the  best  school  of  war  of  his  day, 
making  a  campaign  in  America  and  returning  to 
France  to  talk  it  over.  He  was  succeeded  in  com 
mand  by  the  Marquis  de  Montcalm. 

During  the  Revolutionary  war,  while  many  of  the 
Germans  of  New  York  were  serving  in  the  army, 
their  homes  and  those  of  their  neighbors  were 
exposed  to  the  attacks  of  savage  enemies,  French 
and  Indians  rivalling  one  another  in  cruelties.  The 
German  settlers  and  their  families  defended  them 
selves  with  real  courage,  and  the  story  of  their  heroic 
deeds  well  deserves  the  lasting  record  that  Kapp  has 
secured  it  in  his  interesting  volume.  The  border 
warfare  of  what  was  then  Western  New  York 
showed  that  among  the  Germans  there  were  many 
stout  hearts  and  strong  hands  ready  to  defend  their 
lives  and  to  protect  their  families.  Each  home  was 
a  block-house  and  every  fort  a  gathering-point,  yet 
the  English  were  as  bitter  in  repressing  the  liberty- 
loving  Germans  as  ever  the  French  had  been  in 
attacking  them  for  their  loyalty  to  England.  Even 
when  the  war  ended  it  was  with  a  sacrifice  of  lives 
and  property  that  fell  heavily  on  the  German  settlers. 
All  this,  however,  was  a  training  and  experience  that 
helped  to  make  them  devoted  patriots,  and  earnest 
in  their  readiness  to  sacrifice  everything  in  defence 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  43 

of  their  newly-acquired  liberty  and  independence. 
From  the  same  counties  came  many  regiments  into 
the  army  that  helped  to  defend  and  preserve  the 
Union,  and  although  the  distinctive  German  charac 
teristics  were  less  marked  in  New  York  than  in 
Pennsylvania,  still  a  military  history  of  New  York 
in  the  Rebellion,  whenever  it  is  written,  will  show 
that  the  Germans,  descendants  of  the  early  Pfalzers 
and  Rhinelanders,  who  had  settled  in  New  York  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  were  fully 
alive  to  the  patriotic  demand  made  upon  them  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Documents  relating  to 
the  Colonial  History  of  the  State  of  New  York 
there  are  printed  many  interesting  original  papers, 
throwing  light  on  the  settlement  of  Germans  in  that 
State. 

At  p.  117  there  is  a  report  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
on  the  plans  for  settling  the  Palatines,  discussing 
the  proposal  for  sending  three  thousand  Palatines  at 
New  York,  and  reciting  that  if  the  said  Palatines 
were  seated  on  the  most  advanced  frontier,  the  de 
fence  and  preservation  would  be  secured,  and  they 
would  be  an  additional  strength  and  security  to 
that  province,  not  only  with  regard  to  the  French 
of  Canada,  but  against  any  insurrection  of  the 
scattered  nations  of  Indians  upon  that  continent. 


44  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Each   head  of  a  family  was  to   receive  forty  acres, 
free  of  rent  for  seven  years,  "  and  for  the  better  pre 
venting  these  people  from  falling  upon  the  Woollen 
Manufactures,  it  will  be  proper  that  in  every  Grant, 
a  clause  be  incerted,  declaring  the  said  Grant  to  be 
Void,    if   such    Grantee   shall   apply  himself  to  the 
making   the    Woollen    or   such    like    Manufacture." 
This  report,  signed    by  Stamford,  Dartmouth,  Pul- 
teney,  and  others,  is  dated  Whitehall,  Dec.  25,  1709. 
It   is   followed    by   a    draft  of    "Covenants   for   the 
Palatines'  Residence  and  Imployment  in  New  York," 
reciting  that  "Whereas  we,  the  underwritten  Persons, 
natives  of  the  Lower  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine,  have 
been  subsisted,  maintained  and  supported  ever  since 
our  arrival  in  this  Kingdom  by  the  great  and  Chris 
tian    Charity   of    Her    Majesty   the    Queen,   and   of 
many  of  her  good  subjects,  we  in  a  grateful  sense, 
just  Regard  and  due  Consideration  of  the  Premises, 
do  covenant   that  we  will   settle   ourselves   in   such 
place  as  shall  be  allotted  to  us  in  the  Province  of 
New  York,  that  we  will  not  upon  any  account  or  in 
any  manner  of  Pretence  quit  or  desert  the  said  Prov 
ince,  without  leave  from  the  Governor  first  had  and 
obtained   in   such   Bodyes   or   Societys   as   shall   be 
thought  useful   or  necessary  either  for  carrying   on 
the  Manufacture  of  things  proper  for  Navall  Stores 
or  for  the  Defence  of  us  and  the  rest  of  Her  Majesty's 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  45 

subjects  against  the  French,  or  any  other  of  Her 
Majesty's  Enemies,  and  not  concern  ourselves  in 
working  up  or  making  things  belonging  to  the 
Woollen  Manufacture." 

Later  on  the  Palatines  were  complained  of  for 
not  being  willing  to  work  on  the  land  assigned  them 
and  on  the  terms  prescribed,  and  a  force  of  soldiers 
was  sent  from  the  garrison  at  Albany  to  reduce  them 
to  subjection.  Their  submission  was  soon  after  re 
ported  and  their  sincere  repentance.  Then  comes 
a  report  of  the  expedition  against  the  French,  of 
which  New  York,  though  with  much  grumbling, 
provided  "350  Christians,  150  Long  Island  Indians, 
and  100  Palatines,"  and  the  governor  added  "  100 
more  to  compleat  ye  regular  troops  to  their  estab 
lishment,  and  as  many  more  to  her  Majesty's 
share." 

In  1720,  Weiser  and  other  Palatines  petitioned 
the  queen  for  a  correction  of  the  abuses  practised 
upon  them,  especially  complaining  that  the  five 
pounds  per  head  promised  those  who  had  volun 
teered  for  the  expedition  to  Canada  had  never  been 
paid. 

Johannes  Wilhelm  Scheff,  agent  for  the  Palatines, 
presented  a  counter-petition,  objecting  to  Weiser's 
plans.  To  this  a  note  at  the  foot  of  p.  575,  vol.  v., 
Colonial  Documents,  N.Y.,  gives  the  following  par- 


46  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

ticulars  of  John  Conrad  Weiser.  He  was  the  son  of 
Jacob  Weiser,  was  a  magistrate  of  the  village  of  Great 
Anspach,  in  the  Duchy  of  Wiirtemberg,  married  Anne 
Magdalene  Hebele,  by  whom  he  had  fifteen  children. 
She  dying  in  1709,  he  left  his  country,  and  landed 
with  the  major  part  of  his  family  in  New  York  in  June, 
1710,  settling  in  Livingston  Manor,  where  he  married 
again  in  1711.  In  1714  he  went  with  other  Palatines 
to  Schoharie,  and  in  1718  to  England  on  a  secret 
mission  with  SchefE  They  quarrelled  in  London, 
Scheff  returning  in  1721,  Weiser  in  1723,  and  moved 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  Palatines,  through  the 
forests,  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Susquehanna,  where 
they  built  canoes  and  floated  down  that  river  to 
Swatara,  on  the  head-waters  of  that  river  and  the 
Tulpehocken.  They  settled  in  what  is  now  part  of 
Berks  and  Lebanon  counties.  Captain  Weiser  died 
July  13,  1760  (See  Coll.  Hist.  Soc.  Pa.,  vol.  i.  pp.  1-6.) 
Governor  Burnet,  in  1722,  describes  the  Palatines  as 
"  for  the  generality  a  laborious  and  honest,  but  a  head 
strong,  ignorant  people."  In  1753,  Weiser  made  a 
journey  to  the  Mohawk  country,  and  his  journal  is 
printed  in  vol.  vi.  p.  735,  of  the  Col.  Doc.,  N.Y., 
showing  that  he  stood  high  in  the  confidence  of 
Governor  Hamilton,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Governor 
Colden,  of  New  York. 

General  Nicholas  Herkimer  was  the  eldest  son  of 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  47 

Johann  Jost  Herkimer,  a  Palatine,  and  one  of  the 
original  patentees  of  what  is  now  part  of  Herkimer 
County,  New  York.  He  was  commissioned  a  lieu 
tenant  in  the  Schenectady  militia,  January  5,  1758,  and 
commanded  Fort  Herkimer  that  year  when  the  French 
and  Indians  attacked  the  German  Flats.  In  1775  he 
was  appointed  colonel  of  the  first  battalion  of  militia  in 
Tryon  County,  and  represented  his  district  in  the 
County  Committee  of  Safety,  of  which  he  was  chair 
man.  On  September  5,  1776,  he  was  commissioned 
brigadier-general  of  the  Tryon  County  militia,  by  the 
Convention  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  August 
6,  1777,  commanded  the  American  forces  at  the  battle 
of  Oriskany,  where  he  received  a  mortal  wound,  dying 
ten  days  later  at  his  home,  the  present  town  of 
Danube,  near  Little  Falls,  in  his  fiftieth  year.  Con 
gress  testified  its  sense  of  his  services  by  twice  passing 
resolutions  requesting  New  York  to  erect  a  monu 
ment,  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States,  to  his 
memory,  but  in  vain. 

Another  notable  New  York  German  was  Colonel 
Daniel  Claus,  a  native  of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  where 
he  acquired,  in  early  life,  a  knowledge  of  the  Iroquois 
language,  and  was  in  consequence  attached  as  inter 
preter  to  the  department  of  General  Johnson,  whom 
he  accompanied,  as  lieutenant  of  rangers,  in  the 
expedition  against  Dieskau.  In  1756  he  was  ap- 


48  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

pointed  lieutenant  in  the  Sixtieth  or  Royal  Ameri 
can  Regiment,  and  continued  at  Johnstown  until 
1759,  when  he  went  to  Niagara  and  then  to  Montreal 
as  Superintendent  of  the  Canada  Indians.  In  1761  he 
was  promoted  to  a  captaincy,  and  in  1763  went  on 
half-pay  on  the  reduction  of  his  regiment.  In  1766 
he  assisted  at  the  treaty  concluded  with  Pontiac  at 
Lake  Ontario.  He  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  William 
Johnson,  and  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution 
retired  to  Canada.  He  went  to  England  with  Brant 
in  1776,  and  returned  in  1777,  with  a  commission  and 
instructions  to  bring  the  Indians  to  co-operate  with 
the  British  army.  He  was  commended  by  General 
St.  Leger  for  his  part  in  the  expedition  against  Fort 
Schuyler,  where  he  led  the  Indians.  He  died  in 
Wales  in  1787.  His  great  service  was  the  supervision 
and  publication  of  a  translation  of  "The  Book  of 
Common  Prayer"  into  the  Mohawk  language,  pub 
lished  at  Quebec  in  1780,  and  republished  in  Eng 
land  in  1787,  after  final  revision  by  Colonel  Claus, 
and  the  addition  of  a  translation  of  the  Gospel  of 
St.  Mark  into  the  Mohawk  language,  by  Captain 
Joseph  Brant. 

Scattered  through  the  many  volumes  of  the  Docu 
ments  relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State  of 
New  York  are  many  original  papers  bearing  upon 
the  early  Germans.  Letters  and  reports  show  that 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED  STATES.  49 

a  great  part  of  the  Pennsylvania  forces  engaged  in  the 
old  French  war  were  Germans ;  that  a  colony  of  them 
was  already  planted  on  the  Ohio;  that  efforts  were 
made  to  compel  them  to  speak  English,  and  to  join  the 
Church  of  England;  that  their  petition  for  leave  to 
form  a  military  company  in  New  York  in  March,  1771, 
was  duly  forwarded  by  Lord  Dunmore  with  praise  of 
their  zeal  and  spirit,  and  oddly  enough  the  remark 
that  "  there  cannot  be  made  the  same  objection  which 
is  common  to  auxiliaries,  these  being  established  in 
the  country  and  their  interest  concerned  in  its  safety," 
and  in  August  of  the  same  year  Governor  Tryon  duly 
reports  from  Fort  George  that  "  the  German  Protes 
tants  (as  appears  by  their  address  enclosed)  are  duly 
sensible  of  the  honor  done  them  by  His  Majesty's 
approbation  of  their  offer  to  assist  the  Government." 
With  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  Germans 
formed  one  of  the  independent  foot  companies  in  New 
York  City,  whose  organization  was  reported  with  an 
earnest  warning  that  it  all  pointed  to  independency. 
At  the  last  the  royalists  offered  such  of  the  Germans 
as  were  loyalists,  both  the  early  Palatines  and  their  de 
scendants,  and  later  comers  too,  refuge  in  Canada, 
where  some  of  them  found  new  homes.  These,  how 
ever,  like  the  few  families  that  in  old  colonial  days 
had  been  tempted  to  go  to  Canada  too,  were  for  the 
most  part  soon  back  again  within  the  limits  of  the 

5 


50  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

republic  to  whose  glory  they  too  have  contributed 
in  their  own  way. 

In  1728  the  first  conflict  in  Pennsylvania  took 
place  between  Germans  and  Indians  at  Manatawny. 
In  1/55,  after  Braddock's  defeat,  the  Indians  at 
tacked  the  Moravian  settlements,  and  all  the  fron 
tier  counties  were  ravaged  by  them.  Franklin 
himself  headed  a  regiment  in  defence  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  in  which  many  Germans  served,  and  he 
gave  them  hearty  praise  for  their  bravery.  When 
another  outbreak  occurred  in  1763,  Bouquet,  with 
his  regiment  of  Royal  Americans,  officered  as  well 
as  manned  by  Germans,  put  it  down.  The  Ger 
mans  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  organized  in 
1775  a  fusileer  company,  which  served  through 
the  Revolution  and  is  still  in  existence.  In  Georgia 
many  of  the  early  German  settlers  enlisted  under 
General  Wayne  in  the  Revolutionary  army. 

As  early  as  1769,  Kaspar  Mausher  made  hunting 
trips  through  the  Cumberland  country,  now  Tennes 
see  ;  the  buffaloes  were  numerous ;  the  ground  liter 
ally  shook  under  the  gallop  of  the  mighty  herds.  One 
of  the  Cumberland  stations  was  named  after  him, — 
Mausher's,  usually  called  Kaspar's.  When  the  coun 
try  began  to  be  settled,  in  1781-83,  Kaspar  Mausher, 
as  one  of  the  most  expert  Indian  fighters,  naturally 
became  a  leader,  as  colonel  of  the  local  militia; 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  51 

he  always  acted  as  his  own  scout,  and  never  would 
let  any  of  his  men,  in  many  expeditions,  ride  ahead 
or  abreast  of  him,  preferring  to  trust  to  his  own  eyes 
and  ears  and  knowledge  of  forest  warfare.* 

Many  of  the  most  noted  hunters  and  Indian 
fighters  were  of  German  origin ;  such  were  the 
Weitzels,  famous  in  border  annals,  who  lived  near 
Wheeling ;  and  the  ancestor  of  the  Kentucky  Stonors 
of  to-day,  Michael  Steiner.f  In  the  Carolinas  the 
Germans  were  plentiful  on  the  borders. 

General  Oglethorpe  intended  to  enlist  the  early 
Salzburger  German  Protestant  settlers  as  soldiers, 
but  on  their  protest  that  fighting  was  against  their 
religion,  he  did  not  insist  upon  it.  Still,  Captain 
Hermsdorf  succeeded  in  raising,  in  1736,  a  small 
company  of  volunteers,  and  they  offered  their  ser 
vices  to  General  Oglethorpe,  who  sent  them  to 
Frederica,  on  St.  Simon's  Island,  to  erect  a  fort 
and  plant  a  garrison  to  protect  the  frontier  against 
the  threatened  invasion  of  the  Spaniards. 

This  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  German  Lu 
theran  congregation  at  Frederica,  and  there  Dr.  H. 

*  "Winning  of  the  West,"  Roosevelt,  vol.  ii.  pp.  325,  etc. 

f  About  noted  hunters  and  Indian  fighters  of  German  origin : 
"Early  Times  in  Middle  Tennessee,"  by  John  Carr,  Nashville,  1859. 

Kaspar  Mausher  was  made  a  colonel  of  the  frontier  militia. — Roose 
velt,  p.  151. 


52  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

M.  Muhlenberg  paid  a  visit  in  1751.  He  had,  up 
to  1741,  been  pastor  of  Hermersdorf,  in  Upper 
Lusatia,  and  inspector  of  the  orphan  house  at  that 
place,  but  had  accepted  a  call  to  the  Lutheran 
church  in  Philadelphia. 

Among  these  early  German  settlers  in  Georgia 
was  Frederick  Helfenstein, — sold  and  apprenticed 
as  a  child, — as  to  whom  tradition  reports  that  he  was 
the  descendant  of  a  count  of  that  name,  who,  with 
his  wife,  a  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
and  their  youngest  child,  was  butchered  in  the 
rebellion  of  the  peasantry  in  Luther's  time. 

In  1774,  Dr.  Muhlenberg  paid  an  official  visit 
of  inspection  to  the  various  German  Lutheran  set 
tlements  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  for  up  to  the 
Revolution  both  the  German  Lutheran  Church  and 
the  Church  of  England  assisted  these  struggling 
congregations.  His  success  in  negotiating  with  the 
local  authorities  secured  the  Lutherans  the  enjoy 
ment  of  their  own  property,  and  his  plan  of  church 
government  gave  great  satisfaction.  His  work  en 
dured  long  after  the  Revolution  had  severed  all 
temporal  ties  with  the  mother-church  abroad. 

Up  to  1741  over  twelve  hundred  German  Prot 
estants  came  to  Georgia.  In  the  Revolutionary  war 
these  and  their  children  were  divided ;  the  clergyman 
of  their  congregation  in  Savannah,  Rev.  C.  F.  Trieb- 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  53 

ner,  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  crown,  and 
advised  that  their  colony  at  Ebenezer  should  be 
occupied  by  royal  troops,  and  these  he  conducted 
there  himself.  They  threw  up  a  redoubt  within 
a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  church,  which  they  oc 
cupied  as  a  hospital.  Many  of  the  settlers  followed 
the  example  of  their  pastor  and  obtained  certificates 
of  protection,  on  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance.  The 
majority  of  the  Salzburgers,  however,  warmly 
espoused  the  republican  cause.  Those  who  figured 
most  conspicuously  were  John  Adam  Trentlen,  rebel 
governor ;  William  Holsendorf,  rebel  counsellor ;  John 
Stirk,  rebel  colonel;  Samuel  Stirk,  rebel  secretary; 
and  many  others,  with  these,  served  faithfully  in  the 
struggle  for  independence,  under  General  Wayne  and 
other  officers,  in  the  American  army,  and  their  names 
deserve  to  be  perpetuated  with  the  long  list  of 
worthies  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  cause  of 
liberty.  Among  those  who  took  the  royalist  side, 
one  Eichel  and  Martin  Dasher  placed  themselves 
at  the  head  of  marauding  parties,  composed  of 
British  and  Tories,  and  laid  waste  every  plantation 
or  farm  whose  occupant  was  even  suspected  of 
favoring  the  republican  cause.  Mr.  Frederick  Hel- 
fenstein  was  one  of  the  greatest  sufferers,  for  his 
sons  served  in  a  troop  of  cavalry  under  Colonel 
McCoy  and  General  Wayne. 


54  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

Among  those  proscribed  as  rebels  occur  the  names 
of  the  following  Salzburgers  :  J.  A.  Treutlin,  Colonel 
John  Stirk,  William  Holzendorf,  Rudolph  Strohaker, 
Samuel  Stirk,  George  Wyche,  John  Schnider.* 

The  German  soldier  has  gone  through  all  the 
phases  of  history  in  our  brief  experience  of  war.  In 
the  Revolution  the  Hessians  became  a  byword,  and 
yet  they  were  rather  the  victims  of  political  evils  than 
willing  partisans.  Not  the  least  of  Friedrich  Kapp's 
great  service  to  both  the  country  of  his  adoption  and 
that  of  his  nativity  is  his  series  of  admirable  works 
on  the  German  soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  giving,  on 
the  one  side,  his  account  of  the  dealings  in  them  as 
mercenaries,  and  on  the  other,  his  lives  of  Steuben 
and  De  Kalb.  Much  of  his  material  has  supplied 
that  for  later  authors,  notably  Green  and  Lowell. 
Von  Eelking  has  furnished  the  story  of  Riedesel's 
life,  the  commander  of  the  German  forces  in  the 
British  army.  The  "  Memoirs  of  Mme.  von  Riedesel" 
will  always  be  read  with  interest  as  a  picture  of  the 
times  of  the  Revolution,  both  in  Germany  and  in 
America. 

Max  von  Eelking's  "  Die  Deutschen  Hiilfstruppen 
im  Nordamerikanischen  Befreiungskriege,  1776  bis 
1783,"  Hanover,  1863,  2  vols.  8vo,  pp.  271  and  397, 

*  Strobel's  "History  of  the  Salzburgers,"  Baltimore,  1885. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  55 

gives  many  particulars  of  Germans  engaged  on  the 
patriot  side  in  the  Revolution,  of  course  incidentally 
only  and  in  subordination  to  the  graphic  and  minute 
description  of  the  services  of  the  German  troops 
engaged  in  the  British  army.  Thus,  he  mentions  the 
facts  relating  to  one  A.  Emmerich,  who,  after  taking 
part  in  the  old  French  war,  recruited  both  in  Germany 
and  America  a  force  of  German  loyalists,  and  was  so 
important  that  Congress  and  General  Putnam,  in  the 
fashion  of  the  day,  issued  proclamations  putting  a 
price  upon  his  head.  Then  again,  among  the  Ameri 
can  officers  present  at  the  dinner  given  by  Gates 
to  Burgoyne  after  the  surrender  of  the  latter,  was 
Colonel  Von  Weissenfels,  a  native  of  Konigsberg,  who 
had  for  a  long  time  been  in  the  Prussian  service. 
Another  of  Weissenfels's  comrades  we  meet  when 
General  Riedesel  came  to  New  York,  from  his  long 
captivity  after  Burgoyne's  surrender,  and  found  over 
fifty  of  his  soldiers  enlisted  by  a  Captain  Von  Dieman, 
who  was  raising  a  company  of  hussars;  he  was  a  Ger 
man  who  had  been  serving  in  the  Sixtieth  Regiment 
of  the  English  line. 

There  is  told  the  story  (from  Kapp's  "  Life")  of  the 
friendly  way  in  which  General  Knyphausen  protected 
Steuben,  when  his  life  might  have  fallen  a  victim  to 
his  own  reckless  courage  in  exposing  himself  to  a 
large  hostile  force. 


56  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

The  Germans  of  Maryland  gave  a  special  welcome 
to  the  German  prisoners  as  they  came  within  reach 
of  the  friendly  German  tongue  and  German  hearts  of 
the  settlers. 

The  material  for  a  statistical  account  of  the  Ger 
man  forces  engaged  in  America  has  been  found  in 
the  well-ordered  and  well-preserved  archives  of  the 
various  German  states  from  which  they  came.  For 
our  war  of  the  Rebellion  such  data  are  not  easily 
attainable.  The  story  covers  too  vast  a  field  to  be 
briefly  told.  The  method  of  raising  troops  in  the 
separate  States  obliges  an  inquirer  to  make  an  ex 
amination  of  the  printed  records  of  each  State,  and 
these  are  so  voluminous  and  so  unsystematic  that 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  at  the  facts  of  the  na 
tivity  of  the  soldiers  serving  in  their  organizations. 
Indeed,  there  still  remains  to  be  written  a  history  of 
the  part  of  New  York  in  the  war,  and  in  those  bulky 
volumes  of  war  records  of  States  already  printed  it 
is  hard  to  say  which  is  the  least  satisfactory  on  this 
point. 

The  Seven  Years'  war  made  the  name  of  Germany 
and  its  great  leader,  Frederick,  popular  throughout 
the  colonies.  Town,  village,  and  way-side  inn  dis 
played  the  well-known  sharp  features  and  high 
shoulders  as  a  sign,  and  the  "  King  of  Prussia"  was 
a  favorite  name  for  taverns — then  of  more  importance 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  $? 

than  to-day — on  all  the  high-roads  between  the  great 
towns.*  Washington  himself  admired  and  revered 
his  great  contemporary,  Frederick,  and  one  of  the 
earliest  decorations  of  Mount  Vernon  was  a  bust  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  the  Great ;  with  it  were  to 
be  placed  Alexander  the  Great,  Julius  Caesar,  Charles 
XII.  of  Sweden,  Prince  Eugene,  and  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough.  When,  more  than  a  score  of  years 
later,  the  great  American  had  won  his  own  place  in 
the  world's  roll  of  immortals,  he  received  from  Fred 
erick  his  own  portrait,  fitly  inscribed,  "From  the 
Oldest  General  in  Europe  to  the  Greatest  General  in 
the  World." 

Steuben  was  one  of  Frederick's  own  veterans,  and 
as  such  he  was  heartily  welcomed  when  French  offi 
cers  of  high  rank  were  coldly  received.  His  zeal,  his 
ability,  and  his  success  were  shown  in  the  improved 
discipline  and  instruction  of  the  provincial  troops. 
He  was  so  good  a  soldier  that  he  knew  just  how  to 
use  the  material  at  hand,  and  to  make  good  soldiers 
and  good  officers  of  what  had  hitherto  been  an  un- 

*  Sauer,  the  Germantown  printer,  published  in  1761  a  translation 
into  German  of  Dilworth's  "  Life  and  Heroic  Deeds  of  Frederick  the 
Great,"  a  volume  of  288  pages.  Rabbi  Franckel's  Berlin  Thanks 
giving  Sermon  on  the  King's  Victory  of  December  5,  1757,  was 
reprinted  in  Philadelphia  in  1763,  in  a  translation  by  an  unknown 
hand.  ("  Hildeburn's  Issues  of  the  Pennsylvania  Press,"  No.  6725). 


58       THE  GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

disciplined  mass.  Steuben's  "  Regulations"  long  re» 
mained  the  manual  of  the  United  States  army  and  its 
militia.  It  was  not  only  that  he  made  the  army 
successful  in  the  field,  but  the  discipline  he  had 
introduced  so  effectually  cultivated  the  sense  of  duty 
and  subordination,  that  a  weak  and  impotent  Con 
gress,  which  had  utterly  failed  in  its  tluty  to  provide 
for  its  soldiers,  was  still  able  to  disband  peacefully  an 
injured  and  irritated  army.  That  he  spent  the  rest  of 
his  life  in  waiting  for  justice  is  not  fairly  compensated 
for  by  the  posthumous  honors  that  have  been  paid 
his  memory  since  his  death,  and  the  debt  of  gratitude 
that  America  owes  to  Steuben  is  one  that  can  never 
be  fully  discharged. 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  in  disparagement 
of  the  German  mercenaries  serving  in  the  British 
army  in  the  war  of  independence.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  in  England  itself  the  wickedness  of 
thus  hiring  men  against  their  consent  was  sharply 
denounced.  Holland  and  Russia  absolutely  refused 
to  accept  the  tempting  offers  of  Great  Britain.  King 
George,  himself  a  German  sovereign,  mildly  pro 
tested  against  thus  using  his  Hanoverian  troops. 
Frederick  the  Great  sternly  forbade  the  enlistment 
of  any  of  his  subjects  or  permission  to  any  of  the 
petty  German  princes  to  take  their  soldiers  through 
his  territories  to  ports  of  shipment  to  England  for 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  59 

America.  Schiller  stigmatized  the  trade  in  men  in 
his  "  Kabale  und  Liebe ;"  while  Kant  went  still  further, 
and  embraced  4he  cause  of  the  American  colonist 
with  all  the  energy  of  his  great  intellect.  Klop- 
stock  and  Lessing  spoke  in  the  same  strain,  al 
though  in  lower  tones.  Friedrich  Kapp  puts  the  total 
of  twenty-nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-six 
as  the  number  furnished  by  Brunswick,  Hesse-Cassel, 
Hanau,  Waldeck,  Anspach,  and  Anhalt,  and  of  these 
only  seventeen  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirteen 
returned  to  their  native  country.  How  many  of  the 
remainder  stayed  in  their  new  home  to  become 
fathers  of  American  citizens  cannot  be  easily  ascer 
tained,  yet  it  is  more  than  a  tradition  that  in  Penn 
sylvania,  in  Maryland,  in  Virginia,  in  North  Caro 
lina,  wherever  there  were  German  settlers  ready  to 
aid  the  new-comers,  the  sick,  the  wounded,  the 
stragglers,  the  deserters,  all  found  protection  and  a 
welcome,  which  insured  them  prosperity  and  a  better 
livelihood  than  they  had  left  behind  them.  Their 
number  has  been  roughly  estimated  at  considerably 
over  ten  thousand. 

Max  von  Eelking's  book  on  "The  German  Sol 
diers  in  the  American  War  of  Independence"  is  the 
best  source  of  information  for  all  that  relates  to 
the  services  of  the  German  troops  employed  by 
the  British  government  in  the  Revolutionary  war. 


60  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

His  sources  of  knowledge  were  largely  original, — 
journals  and  letters  of  officers  hitherto  unprinted, 
from  Hessian,  Brunswick,  Waldeck*  Anspach-Bai- 
reuth,  and  Anhalt-Zerbst  archives.  His  prefatory 
note  on  the  subsidy  contracts  made  with  the 
sovereigns  of  these  countries  shows  that,  at  that 
time,  there  was  little  opposition  to  that  method  of 
increasing  the  revenues  or  employing  the  resources 
of  small  states.  He  gives  the  history  of  such  soldier 
sales.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  owe  much  of  their 
glory  to  employment  in  foreign  service.  Xenophon's 
history  is  that  of  ten  thousand  soldiers  sent  by  the 
younger  Cyrus  against  his  brother,  Artaxerxes.  Age- 
silaus  the  Second  served  against  the  Persians,  and 
Xanthippus  against  the  Romans  for  Carthaginian  pay ; 
while  Tacitus  speaks  more  than  once  of  German 
allies  hired  for  war.  In  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  a 
recognized  means  of  making  war.  After  the  Thirty 
Years'  war  it  helped  the  lesser  German  princes 
to  recover  their  prosperity  and  increase  their 
resources.  Charles  of  Hesse  hired  out  his  troops 
in  1676  to  King  Christian  the  Fifth,  of  Denmark. 
In  1687  he  gave  a  thousand  men  to  Venice  to 
carry  on  its  war  with  the  Porte,  and  three  thousand 
four  hundred  to  Holland  to  resist  France,  and  the 
Turks  and  the  French  were  both  looked  on  as 
enemies  of  the  German  empire. 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  6 1 

In  1702  he  found  profitable  employment  for 
nine  thousand  men  in  the  war  of  the  Spanish 
Succession,  and  four  years  later  for  ten  thousand 
five  hundred  men  in  the  English  and  Dutch  ser 
vice,  for  operations  in  Italy.  After  the  peace  of 
Utrecht,  in  1713,  he  gave  George  the  First,  of  Eng 
land,  twelve  thousand  men.  He  was  the  first  Hes 
sian  to  send  his  soldiers  into  foreign  service  for  a 
price.  Other  smaller  German  states  did  it.  Thus, 
in  1688,  at  the  siege  of  Negropont,  there  were  sol 
diers  from  Baden,  Wurtemberg,  Waldeck,  and  Saxe- 
Meiningen,  in  the  pay  of  Venice,  fighting  against 
the  Turks.  Duke  Friedrich  the  Second,  of  Gotha, 
hired  to  the  emperor  three  thousand  men  for  the 
war  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  In  1733,  Fried- 
rich  the  Third  agreed  with  the  Emperor  Charles 
the  Sixth,  in  consideration  of  fifty  thousand  thalers, 
to  supply  two  thousand  four  hundred  infantry  and 
six  hundred  unmounted  dragoons;  and  in  time  of 
war,  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  gulden, 
to  add  four  thousand  infantry  and  a  mounted  regi 
ment  of  cavalry  one  thousand  strong.  These  five 
thousand  were  actually  employed  from  1733  to  1735 
by  the  emperor  in  the  French  war.  In  1744  he 
hired  two  infantry  regiments  and  one  of  cavalry 
to  Holland.  In  1675  there  were  two  Saxon  regi 
ments  in  Prussian  pay,  helping  the  great  elector 

6 


62  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

to  drive  the  Swedes  out  of  his  country.  The 
Wiirtemberg  soldiers  served  the  British  govern 
ment  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick  let  his  army  to  the  British  for  pay, 
to  serve  against  France.  The  great  majority  of 
these  soldiers  were  volunteers,  attracted  by  pay 
that  was  very  high  in  proportion  to  the  wages  to 
be  earned  in  their  native  country.  The  Americans 
were  prompt  to  apply  the  same  practice,  and  offered 
liberal  sums,  both  as  pay  and  in  bounties,  to  quicken 
enlistments.  Leaving  out  of  discussion  all  ques 
tions  of  the  morality  of  such  methods,  it  is  clear 
that  the  German  troops  sent  to  America  learned 
many  lessons  that  were  very  useful  in  the  European 
wars  in  which  they  took  part  after  their  return. 
They  found  nothing  discreditable  in  foreign  service ; 
not  a  few  volunteered  for  love  of  adventure,  and 
their  letters  and  descriptions  show  that  there  was 
no  hostility  to  them  as  hirelings.  Much  of  the 
abuse  that  has  since  then  been  expended  on  them 
is  the  result  of  an  entire  change  in  public  opinion 
on  the  subject.  The  troops  of  Hanover,  five  bat 
talions,  served  for  English  pay  in  Gibraltar  and 
Minorca,  thus  releasing  sixteen  hundred  British 
troops  for  service  in  America.  The  treaties  pro 
viding  for  these  forces  and  for  the  payment  of  their 
subsidies  were  not  personal  acts  of  the  King  of 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  63 

England,  but  were  authorized  and  ratified  by  Parlia 
ment,  which  provided  the  funds  for  the  expense 
thus  incurred,  and  England  promised  to  protect  the 
allied  princes  whose  soldiers  were  serving  under 
its  flag.  On  April  25,  1775,  Hesse-Cassel  agreed 
to  furnish  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  men,  in 
twelve  regiments,  each  of  five  companies,  four  bat 
talions  of  grenadiers,  two  companies  of  yagers  (light 
infantry),  and  some  artillery;  Brunswick,  a  corps  of 
four  thousand  men, — viz.,  four  regiments  of  infantry, 
one  regiment  of  dragoons,  one  battalion  of  grena 
diers,  and  one  of  light  infantry;  Hesse-Hanau,  nine 
hundred  men, — viz.,  one  regiment  of  infantry  and 
some  artillery;  Waldeck,  a  regiment  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  strong. 

These  treaties  were  published  both  in  England  and 
Germany,  and  there  was  no  secret  about  the  terms 
and  conditions  embodied  in  them,  both  as  to  money 
paid  and  other  advantages.  The  average  was  thirty 
thalers  for  every  one  of  the  twenty-two  thousand 
men,  yielding  to 

Hesse-Cassel,          in  eight  years,  .  .  ,£2,959,800 

Brunswick,  "     "         "    .  .  .          750,000 

Hesse-Hanau,          "     "         "    .  .  ,          343J3O 

Waldeck,  "     "         "   .  .  .          140,000 

Anspach-Baireuth,  "  seven    "    .  .  .          282,400 

Anhalt-Zerbst,          "six       "    .  .  ,          109,120 


64       THE  GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

for  the  subsidies  continued  for  two  years  after  the 
war,  and  there  were  additional  sums  paid  for  the 
artillery,  besides,  of  course,  the  expense  of  providing 
subsistence,  etc.,  although  the  arms  and  ordinary 
clothing  were  supplied  from  the  fund  first  paid.  The 
German  princes  made  a  very  good  bargain,  and  took 
care  to  nurse  their  old  English  claims.  The  men 
themselves  were  well  provided;  each  had  his  little 
prayer-book,  and  divine  services  were  steadfastly 
maintained,  and  in  every  journal  and  letter  there  is 
evidence  of  the  general  exercise  of  open  thanksgiving 
on  all  suitable  occasions. 

The  seven  thousand  four  hundred  Hessians  sailed 
from  Portsmouth  in  May,  1776,  with  some  English 
troops,  in  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  transports, 
under  an  escort  of  six  men-of-war  and  two  cruisers. 
The  most  tragical  occurrence  during  the  long  voyage 
was  a  duel  between  two  Hessian  officers,  one  of  whom 
fell  at  the  first  fire.  At  last,  on  August  17,  the  fleet 
arrived  at  Sandy  Hook,  where  the  other  Hessians 
joined  them,  coming  more  speedily.  One  of  the  first 
precautions  was  to  require  the  German  officers  to  take 
all  silver  ornaments  off  their  uniforms, — a  very  early 
notice  of  the  risk  they  ran  at  the  hands  of  the  Ameri 
can  riflemen.  The  troops  were  promptly  landed,  and 
Stirn's  brigade,  of  the  regiments  of  Knyphausen, 
Lossberg,  and  Rahl,  was  at  once  sent  to  relieve  the 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  65 

English  regiments  facing  the  Americans  at  Amboy. 
The  people  were  all  excited  by  their  fears  of  ill-usage 
from  the  German  soldiers,  but  these  were  soon  allayed, 
while  the  Germans  were  never  wearied  in  their  ex 
pressions  of  surprise  at  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
the  American  farmer,  and  that  a  people  so  well  to  do 
should  rebel  against  the  country  which  allowed  them 
these  unheard-of  resources  was  in  their  eyes  an  inex 
plicable  mystery.  Of  the  English  army  sent  against 
them,  sixteen  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
Germans  made  a  fair  proportion  of  the  fifty-five  thou 
sand  soldiers  employed  in  this  service.  When  Clin 
ton  set  out  for  his  campaign  on  Long  Island,  Donop's 
brigade  was  placed  in  the  advance,  and  Heister  with 
the  other  German  troops  brought  up  the  rear.  Hand 
and  Sullivan  led  the  Americans,  who  at  first  fought 
under  the  belief  that  the  hated  Hessians  would  give 
no  quarter,  but  it  did  not  take  long  before  the  op 
posing  forces  made  a  better  acquaintance. 

The  Americans  lost  heavily  in  this  encounter; 
among  others,  General  Sullivan  was  taken  prisoner, 
and  his  captor,  Colonel  Von  Heeringen,  in  his  report, 
said,  "  John  Sullivan  is  a  lawyer,  who  was  formerly  a 
servant,  but  he  is  a  man  of  genius  and  will  be  missed 
by  the  rebels.  Among  the  prisoners  are  many  so- 
called  colonels,  lieutenant-colonels,  and  majors,  as 
well  as  other  officers,  mere  mechanics,  tailors,  shoe- 

6* 


66  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

makers,  wigmakers,  barbers,  etc.,  for  the  most  part ; 
some  of  them  got  a  thorough  drubbing  from  our  men, 
who  would  not  recognize  such  fellows  as  officers.  Not 
one  of  them  ever  served  before  in  any  foreign  army. 
All  are  real  rebels  and  native  citizens.  Lord  Stirling 
is  no  lord  at  all.  Putnam  is  a  butcher.  Whole  masses 
of  their  troops,  with  colonels,  lieutenant-colonels,  and 
majors,  desert,  and  come  begging  for  their  lives  to  our 
side.  Their  artillery  is  wretched, — iron  pieces,  badly 
served,  and  mounted  on  ships'  carriages."  This  was 
the  first  contest  in  which  the  Germans  shed  their 
blood  on  American  soil.  It  taught  them  many  useful 
lessons, — first  of  all,  not  to  despise  their  new  enemies, 
and  next  to  learn  the  advantage  of  their  line  of  battle, 
with  strong  and  long  front  and  flanks  well  covered  by 
skirmishers,  taking  advantage  of  the  natural  defences 
found  in  the  country.  The  defensive  works  hastily 
thrown  up  were  well  contrived,  and  a  little  more  per 
sistence  in  holding  them  would  have  changed  the 
fortunes  of  the  day.  The  success  on  Long  Island 
was  followed  by  the  easy  fall  of  New  York.  The  fear 
of  the  Hessians  led  Congress  to  make  special  efforts 
to  induce  desertion  by  wholesale,  but  with  small  effect. 
They  were  heartily  welcomed  by  the  royalists,  and 
found  great  delight  in  the  generous  hospitality  ex 
tended  to  them.  The  new  German  arrivals  landed  at 
New  Rochelle,  and  with  the  infantry  came  a  regiment 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  6? 

of  cavalry,  which  inspired  the  Americans  with  such 
respect  that  Washington  himself  offered  a  reward  of 
two  hundred  dollars  for  every  dragoon  taken  prisoner 
and  brought  with  his  horse  to  head-quarters. 

Among  the  prisoners  taken  in  one  of  the  earliest 
engagements  was  a  German  soldier  serving  in  the 
American  army,  who  turned  out  to  be  an  old  acquaint 
ance  of  his  Hessian  captors.  The  fall  of  Fort  Wash 
ington,  which  was  then  called  Fort  Knyphausen,  out 
of  compliment  to  the  gallantry  of  the  German  soldiers 
who  took  it,  was  their  first  success,  due  largely  to  the 
excellence  of  the  German  artillery.  The  bad  con 
duct  of  Rahl,  which  led  to  the  discreditable  defeat  of 
his  command,  was  the  subject  of  well-deserved  con 
demnations  by  his  German  and  English  superiors,  and 
only  Rahl's  death,  as  well  as  that  of  many  of  his  offi 
cers  and  men,  prevented  a  heavy  judgment  being  de 
creed  against  his  carelessness  in  posting  his  men  and 
in  not  protecting  his  position  by  proper  precaution. 
His  fault  lay  largely  in  an  unwise  contempt  of  the 
Americans,  all  the  more  unjustifiable,  for  among  his 
captors  was  his  own  uncle,  who  had  emigrated  many 
years  before  the  war  to  America,  and  was  serving  as  a 
colonel  in  the  army  which  defeated  the  German  de 
tachment.  While  Washington  praised  the  Germans  for 
their  gallantry,  Howe  spoke  of  them  with  bitter  con 
tempt.  The  Americans  treated  their  German  prisoners 


68  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

with  marked  courtesy,  sent  them  under  a  small  escort  to 
Philadelphia  and  later  to  Virginia,  enabled  the  men  to 
earn  money  by  working  for  the  neighboring  farmers, 
and  showed  the  people  that  even  the  much-dreaded 
Hessians  were  soldiers  in  arms  against  America  more 
by  reason  of  their  masters  than  from  any  antagonism 
of  their  own.  The  German  prisoners  were  treated 
with  much  more  consideration  than  the  British,  and 
their  good  conduct  was  appreciated  and  rewarded 
both  by  the  American  guards  put  over  them  and  by 
the  American  civilians  with  whom  they  came  in  con 
tact.  The  German  officers  gave  glowing  descriptions 
of  Washington  and  Putnam  and  the  other  American 
generals  whose  kindness  and  hospitality  they  enjoyed. 
In  the  letters  written  home,  they  soon  allayed  the 
anxieties  of  their  German  friends,  who  fancied  that 
capture  by  the  Americans  meant  a  sort  of  savage  and 
barbarous  treatment,  but  their  fears  were  soon  relieved 
by  the  account  of  their  comforts. 

The  Brunswick  troops  left  their  native  country  in 
February,  1776,  under  General  Friedrich  Adolph  von 
Riedesel,  an  officer  of  hussars  and  adjutant  of  the 
duke,  who  had  won  his  reputation  and  his  rank  by 
good  service  in  the  Seven  Years'  war.  His  life  by 
Eelking  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  history  as 
seen  from  the  other  side,  while  the  memoirs  of  his 
wife  will  always  preserve  the  remembrance  of  an 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  69 

heroic  woman,  who  endured  much  out  of  devotion  to 
her  husband.  The  Duke  of  Brunswick  openly  con 
fessed  that  he  hired  his  soldiers  to  Great  Britain  as 
the  only  means  of  avoiding  bankruptcy  in  his  ex 
hausted  state  treasury.  The  same  fleet  that  brought 
Riedesel  and  his  men  brought  Burgoyne,  who  was 
such  a  fatal  leader  for  the  British  troops,  and  a 
number  of  German  volunteers,  who  were  tempted  by 
high  pay  and  bounties  to  enlist  directly  in  the  English 
service,  and  were  assigned  to  different  English  regi 
ments.  Landing  at  Quebec,  Riedesel  soon  found 
that  General  Carleton,  in  command  there,  was  very 
unfriendly  towards  Howe,  and  from  this  arose,  no 
doubt,  much  of  the  difficulty  that  brought  about 
subsequently  the  disasters  of  the  British  forces  in 
America.  The  Germans  were  far  from  pleased  at  the 
alliance  with  the  native  Indians,  who  more  than  once 
proved  themselves  more  dangerous  to  their  British 
friends  than  to  their  American  enemies.  The  Ger 
mans,  however  unwillingly  at  first,  learned  from  them 
the  advantage  of  fighting  in  thin  lines  scattered 
through  the  woody  country,  instead  of  in  heavy 
masses,  suited  to  operate  only  in  open  fields  such 
as  are  found  in  the  old  and  cultivated  European 
countries.  The  winter  experiences  in  Canada  and 
the  summer  campaigns  on  the  American  frontiers 
were  useful  lessons  for  the  German  soldiers,  and  their 


70  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

reports  give  a  very  vivid  picture  of  the  French  system 
in  force  on  the  northern  side  of  the  boundary,  and  of 
.the  much  more  independent  life,  both  social  and 
political,  of  the  Americans  on  what  was  then  the  bor 
der  line  of  their  settlements.  The  New  England  and 
New  York  farmers  were  soldiers,  too,  and  the  Germans 
soon  learned  to  respect  their  courage  and  endurance. 
With  a  recognition  of  the  growing  difficulties  to 
be  overcome  in  the  contest  in  America,  the  Eng 
lish,  in  1777,  tried  to  secure  additional  foreign  troops 
for  service  there.  An  attempt  to  get  Russian  sol 
diers  failed  from  the  energetic  refusal  of  Catherine 
to  accede  to  it.  Hesse-Cassel,  Hesse-Hanau,  Bruns 
wick,  Anspach-Baireuth,  and  Waldeck  again  made 
new  treaties,  raising  the  German  contingent  to  twenty 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  two  men,  and  Parliament 
voted  five  millions  of  pounds  for  their  pay  and  other 
expenses.  Volunteering  went  on  freely  in  the  Ger 
man  towns,  for  the  bounties  were  liberal  to  a  degree 
before  unheard  of  there,  but  occasionally  the  outlay 
was  not  a  very  profitable  one.  Thus,  on  the  voyage 
over,  one  vessel  fell  into  the  hands  of  American 
privateers,  and  the  sixty  Hessian  yagers  spent  the 
time  until  1778,  and  some  until  1780,  in  American 
towns  as  prisoners  of  war,  before  they  were  ex 
changed.  The  German  soldiers  generally  left  home  in 
good  temper,  but  in  one  case,  at  least,  the  Anspach- 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  Jl 

Baireuth  soldiers  resisted  being  put  on  board  ships, 
declaring  that  they  had  sworn  to  serve  on  land,  not 
on  water ;  yet  their  prince  was  able  to  reconcile  them 
to  the  necessity  of  a  voyage  to  do  their  part  towards 
his  profitable  bargain.  It  is  true,  late  German  writers, 
among  them  Auerbach,  have  drawn  touching  pictures 
of  the  hardships  inflicted  on  these  unwilling  allies, 
but  Eelking  gives,  a  more  prosaic  account  of  the 
prince,  who,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  bade  good-by  to 
his  subjects,  after  giving  them  plentiful  supplies  of 
brandy,  sauerkraut,  dried  fruit,  and  tobacco,  to  console 
themselves  with  on  their  long  sea-journey.  Landing 
in  New  York  in  June,  after  more  than  twelve  weeks  at 
sea,  the  Germans  were  soon  sent  to  the  front,  where 
they  too  took  their  lesson  for  future  use  from  the 
American  riflemen,  who  were  ready  to  cope  with  the 
well-clothed  and  well-fed  and  well-trained  German 
yager  companies.  Each  learned  something  from  the 
others,  and  the  Germans  soon  became  self-reliant, 
acting  independently,  each  for  himself,  while  the 
Americans  found  the  advantage  of  strict  discipline 
and  instant  obedience  to  orders.  The  Germans 
sharply  criticised  the  campaigns  in  which  they  took 
part,  and  found  fault  with  Howe  and  Cornwallis  for 
operations  often  undertaken  by  orders  received  from 
London,  and,  of  course,  far  from  being  suited  to  the 
existing  state  of  affairs  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. 


?2  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

General  Von  Heister  returned  to  Germany,  publicly 
because  of  his  age  and  infirmities,  really  on  account 
of  his  disputes  with  Howe,  and  Knyphausen  suc 
ceeded  to  the  command  of  the  German  troops.  Heis 
ter  died  soon  after  his  return  to  Cassel,  where  he  was 
honored  for  his  long  military  career.  Born  in  1716, 
he  served  in  both  German  and  French  armies, — in  the 
war  of  the  Austrian  Succession  on  the  French  side, 
in  the  Seven  Years'  war  on  that  of  Germany,  and  his 
American  campaign  was  his  last. 

When  Howe  at  last  began  his  Southern  campaign, 
in  his  army  of  sixteen  thousand  men  he  had  over  four 
thousand  German  soldiers.  Leaving  New  York  in  a 
fleet  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  sail,  on  July  23, 
and  reaching  Chesapeake  Bay  on  August  15,  the 
troops  were  finally  landed  on  the  26th,  at  Head  of 
Elk,  and  were  divided  into  two  columns,  one  led  by 
Howe,  the  other  by  Knyphausen.  Among  the  first 
captures  was  a  German  officer,  Von  Uchtritz,  serving 
in  Armand's  legion,  an  old  Saxon  soldier,  who  had 
come  to  America  to  try  his  fortune  with  the  colonists. 
The  Germans  complained  that  Howe  failed  to  follow 
up  promptly  his  success  at  the  battle  of  Brandywine, 
while  they  complimented  Washington  on  his  wisdom 
in  fighting  for  the  possession  of  Philadelphia  at  such 
a  distance  that  the  Congress  sitting  there  could  find 
safety  in  a  leisurely  withdrawal.  The  Germans  sent 


WARS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.  73 

part  of  the  force  that  took  possession  of  the  city, 
while  they  also  claimed  a  large  part  of  the  success 
in  the  battle  of  Germantown,  and  attributed  the  de 
feat  of  Dbnop  at  Red  Bank  mainly  to  Howe's  faulty 
plans.  Donop's  command  was  almost  entirely  Hes 
sians,  but  their  bravery  was  wasted  in  an  attempt  that 
failed  because  Howe  underrated  the  Americans  and 
neglected  the  most  necessary  precautions.  Donop 
himself  was  treated  by  the  Americans  with  great 
kindness,  and  his  death  was  universally  mourned 
in  Germany  and  by  his  soldiers. 

Quietly  settled  in  garrison  in  Philadelphia,  the 
Germans  were  quartered  along  the  Schuylkill  and 
through  the  Neck,  where  they  found  themselves,  they 
wrote  home,  in  a  country  that  reminded  them  of  their 
old  quarters  near  Cassel.  To  the  appeal  from  the 
Americans  to  desert,  an  answer  was  made  on  behalf 
of  the  Germans  by  Captain  Emmerich,  a  German 
serving  at  the  head  of  a  small  body  of  German  volun 
teers  on  the  British  side.  Emmerich  was  the  son 
of  a  Hanau  officer,  and  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Seven  Years'  war  as  a  partisan  against  the  French. 
After  the  peace  he  came  to  America.  When  the 
Revolutionary  war  broke  out,  he  returned  to  Ger 
many,  raised  a  company  of  volunteers,  and,  recom 
mended  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  who  had  known 
him  as  a  good  soldier,  came  back  with  his  men  to 

7 


74  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN   THE 

help  the  English ;  he  became  a  dreaded  power  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Americans,  and  large  rewards  were  offered 
in  vain  for  his  capture.  After  the  war  he  returned  to 
Germany,  distinguished  himself  by  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  make  a  prisoner  of  Jerome  Bonaparte, 
who  was  put  on  the  throne  of  Westphalia  by  Napo 
leon,  and  for  this  was  shot  at  Cassel  in  1809.  His 
name  is  perpetuated  in  his  native  country  for  this 
patriotic  endeavor  to  free  it  from  its  hated  foreign 
master. 

The  Germans  won  the  respect  and  confidence  of 
the  successive  British  commanders,  and  Clinton,  who 
succeeded  Howe,  spoke  of  them  with  great  praise, 
and  more  than  once  they  received  special  rewards  of 
money  for  particular  acts  of  gallantry.  Carleton,  too, 
enjoyed  their  entire  confidence,  while  Burgoyne  from 
the  outset  showed  an  absence  of  all  the  qualities 
needed  for  a  successful  soldier.  Riedesel  saw  the 
change  with  regret,  but  went  bravely  forward  with  his 
three  thousand  six  hundred  men  as  part  of  Burgoyne's 
army  of  eight  thousand,  while  Carleton  was  left  in 
Canada  with  a  detachment  of  six  hundred  Germans 
as  part  of  his  force  of  three  thousand  men.  Riedesel 
in  vain  protested  against  Burgoyne's  order  to  Baum 
to  take  a  small  force  of  Brunswick  heavy  dragoons 
on  an  expedition  to  Bennington.  These  troops,  with 
big  boots,  heavy  spurs,  hats  with  showy  feathers, 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  ?$ 

regulation  gloves,  a  heavy  sword,  and  a  still  heavier 
carbine,  were  supplied,  of  course,  with  big  wigs,  a  long 
queue,  and  all  the  details  that  served  to  attract  the 
eye.  Even  the  English  soldiers  laughed  at  their  slow 
and  labored  marching,  for  as  yet  they  were  not 
mounted,  and  to  send  them,  burdened  with  rations 
for  a  long  march,  was  the  height  of  absurdity. 
Baum's  corps  consisted  of  two  hundred  Brunswick 
dragoons,  one  hundred  of  Breymann's  regiment,  Cana 
dians  and  Indians,  and  two  Hanau  guns, — three  hun 
dred  and  seventy-four  Germans  out  of  a  total  of  five 
hundred  and  fifty-one.  The  fate  that  awaited  them 
at  the  hands  of  Stark  and  his  men  might  have  been 
anticipated.  Burgoyne  acknowledged  the  gallantry 
of  the  little  band,  but  failed  to  see  in  their  sacrifice 
a  foretaste  of  the  fate  that  was  soon  to  befall  his  own 
large  army.  A  Brunswick  officer  wrote  home  that 
here  was  an  army  fed  on  bread  made  of  flour  ground 
in  England,  and  on  meat  salted  there,  while  horses 
and  wagons  were  wanting  that  might  have  brought 
supplies  from  the  rich  neighboring  regions  much 
more  cheaply  and  freely.  The  services  of  the  Ger 
mans  received  little  acknowledgment  from  Burgoyne, 
and  still  less  from  English  historians.  It  was  only  as 
the  inevitable  end  drew  near  that  Burgoyne  took 
counsel  with  Riedesel,  and  then  failed  to  follow  it. 
When  the  surrender  came  at  last,  Riedesel  reported 


76  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

it  to  his  prince,  saying  that  he  had  been  made  the 
victim  of  another  man's  incompetency.  His  own 
reputation,  however,  lost  nothing  by  this  misfortune, 
and  the  Americans  were  foremost  in  testifying  their 
respect  for  him  and  their  admiration  for  the  heroism 
of  his  wife.  He  saved  the  flags  of  his  German  regi 
ments  and  sent  them,  thanks  to  his  wife's  help,  back 
to  Germany.  His  imprisonment  was  long  and  tire 
some,  but  he  bore  the  annoyance  and  irritation 
patiently,  and  he  and  his  wife  set  to  the  officers  and 
soldiers  an  example  that  found  hearty  admiration  on 
all  sides.  Returned  finally  to  service,  he  was  wel 
comed  by  General  Haldimand,  in  Canada,  and  at  last, 
when  the  war  was  over,  received  great  personal 
honors  from  the  King  of  England  and  his  own  sov 
ereign. 

From  Boston,  after  many  disagreeable  experiences 
at  the  hands  of  the  Americans,  Riedesel  and  his  men 
were  sent  to  Virginia,  where  he  lived  like  a  farmer 
in  a  block-house  of  his  own,  his  wife  looking  after 
domestic  affairs  like  a  good  American  housekeeper. 
They  became  friends  of  some  members  of  Washing 
ton's  family,  who  were  their  near  neighbors,  and 
wrote  home  very  detailed  accounts  of  their  mode  of 
living.  Gradually,  however,  they  were  released  from 
captivity  by  exchange,  and  then  they  began  to  laugh 
at  their  recent  experiences,  to  talk  about  the  theatre 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  77 

which  had  helped  to  shorten  the  weary  hours  of  their 
exile  and  imprisonment,  and  even  to  forget  the  an 
noyances  inflicted  upon  them  by  Congress  and  its 
officers,  often  in  the  hope,  deliberately  expressed,  of 
getting  soldiers  for  its  own  empty  ranks. 

Of  the  Germans  who  succeeded  in  escaping  from 
their  captors,  nearly  fifty  Brunswick  and  Hanau 
soldiers  volunteered  in  a  company  of  hussars  raised 
by  a  Captain  Von  Diemar,  a  German  who  had  served 
in  the  Royal  American  Regiment,  the  Sixtieth  of  the 
line. 

The  English  government  in  vain  sought  fresh 
allies  for  its  next  campaign,  that  of  1778,  in  the 
hope  of  making  it  final  and  decisive.  Reports  were 
current  that  Russia  would  supply  twenty-four  thou 
sand  men,  Switzerland  ten  thousand,  and  even  Mo 
rocco  was  to  give  twenty  thousand  black  soldiers, 
while  other  Asiatic  princes  were  to  send  their 
soldiers;  but  all  the  new  allies  were  those  from 
the  little  German  countries,  forwarded  under  the 
terms  of  old  treaties.  In  Parliament  the  opposi 
tion  bitterly  attacked  the  use  of  hirelings,  but  the 
Ministry  very  ingenuously  declared  that  the  Ger 
man  soldiers  had  saved  the  British  supremacy  in 
America,  just  as  they  had  in  1748  saved  England 
from  a  French  invasion,  and  again,  in  the  Seven 
Years'  war  between  France  and  England,  from  1755 


78  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

to  1762,  secured  for  England  a  satisfactory  treaty,  in 
spite  of  the  injuries  inflicted  on  their  native  coun 
tries,  Brunswick,  Hanover,  and  Hesse.  The  German 
princes  themselves  rewarded  the  officers  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  in  America,  and  judi 
ciously  bestowed  medals,  etc.,  for  acts  of  personal 
bravery. 

In  May,  1778,  when  Howe  was  about  to  return 
home,  he  held  a  review  of  his  army  at  Philadel 
phia,  where  seven  regiments  and  fourteen  batteries 
showed  the  German  contingent  to  such  advantage 
as  to  draw  from  the  English  general  special  com 
mendation.  He  gave  especial  praise  to  the  Hessian 
yagers  in  his  farewell  to  their  captains,  Ewald  and 
Wreden.  Clinton,  who  succeeded  him,  had  the 
advantage  of  speaking  German  and  knowing  Ger 
many,  where  he  had  served  with  distinction  during 
the  Seven  Years'  war,  as  adjutant  of  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick.  His  troops  sailed  in  a  squadron  of 
fifty-one  sail,  evacuating  Philadelphia,  to  the  regret 
of  many  of  the  inhabitants,  and  strengthening  the 
garrisons  of  New  York  and  Newport.  In  the  march 
across  New  Jersey,  Knyphausen  led  a  column 
which  included  the  loyalists  from  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  West  Jersey,  as  well  as  British  and 
German  troops.  Steuben  led  the  Americans  in 
the  attack  on  this  force,  and  his  life  was  spared 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  79 

« 

by  Knyphausen's  special  order,  who  recognized 
in  him  an  old  comrade-in-arms  and  a  fellow-coun 
tryman.  The  Hessians  lost  many  out  of  their  ranks 
through  desertion  and  sickness,  and  these  were 
cared  for  by  the  Americans,  who  thus  gained  a 
useful  accession.  The  retreat  to  New  York  was 
followed  by  a  long  and  weary  summer,  passed  in 
and  near  the  city.  Emmerich's  Germans  were 
frequently  engaged  in  the  outposts  with  those  of 
Armand's  Legion.  When  at  last  active  operations 
were  resumed,  Knyphausen  commanded  a  column 
that  moved  up  on  the  left  bank,  Cornwallis  taking 
the  larger  part  of  the  army  up  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Hudson.  In  October  a  strong  detachment, 
largely  made  up  of  Germans,  was  sent  to  Halifax, 
and  in  November  another  to  the  West  Indies,  so 
that  while  the  troops  in  and  near  New  York 
could  go  into  winter-quarters,  a  campaign  in  the 
South  should  signalize  the  opening  of  the  year 
1779.  A  large  part  of  this  force  was  composed  of 
Germans,  and  it  was  strengthened  by  loyalists  from 
North  and  South  Carolina. 

Savannah  was  taken  and  garrisoned  by  German 
regiments,  and  at  Charleston  the  Hessians  recov 
ered  flags  and  guns  lost  by  them  at  Trenton. 

In  the  spring  of  1779  new  recruits  for  the  German 
regiments  were  sent,  numbering  nearly  fifteen  hundred, 


80  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

on  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  transports,  escorted  by 
twenty  ships  of  the  line,  six  frigates,  and  two  fire- 
ships.  Admiral  Arbuthnot  led  the  expedition  which 
was  sent  to  the  South  in  December,  and  the  winter 
storms  cost  him,  after  a  fearful  voyage  of  twenty-five 
days,  the  loss  of  four  transports  wrecked,  one  captured, 
and  four  obliged  to  seek  shelter  by  running  ashore. 
A  little  detachment  of  Hessians  and  Anspachers  suf 
fered  every  sort  of  misery,  were  finally  wrecked  on 
the  coast  of  Cornwall,  taken  to  Plymouth,  again 
shipped  to  America,  and  reached  New  York  in  Octo 
ber,  1780.  In  May,  Lincoln  was  forced  to  surrender 
his  army,  over  six  thousand  strong,  and  Charleston 
was  taken  by  Clinton.  He  made  special  mention  of 
the  Germans  and  their  general  officers,  Von  Huyneand 
Von  Kospoth.  The  rich  spoils  in  the  city  were  dis 
tributed  among  the  captors,  and  the  Hessian  regi 
ment  "  Prince  Charles"  received  as  their  share  sums 
varying  from  two  thousand  pounds  for  the  colonel  to 
seven  pounds  for  each  private  soldier.  Three  German 
regiments  remained  with  Cornwallis  for  his  expedition 
to  subdue  the  Carolinas ;  the  rest  of  them,  with  the  other 
British  troops,  returned  with  Clinton  to  New  York. 
He  sent  another  force  by  sea  to  Canada,  but  some  of 
the  ships  were  lost  in  a  storm,  others  were  captured 
and  exchanged  again  late  in  the  next  year,  1780. 
In  New  York,  Colonel  Von  Minnigerode,  of  the  gren- 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  8 1 

adiers,  an  officer  of  great  merit,  died  in  his  forty-ninth 
year,  and  was  buried  with  military  honors  in  the 
Lutheran  church-yard.  Knyphausen  had  been  left  in 
command  of  the  garrison  of  New  York  by  Clinton, 
when  he  went  on  his  Southern  expedition.  Of  the  six 
thousand  kept  in  New  York,  a  large  part  were  Ger 
man  troops.  Frequent  expeditions  were  sent  out  to 
ravage  the  neighborhood,  and  a  private  soldier  re 
ported  that  on  one  such  expedition  the  booty  con 
sisted  of  money,  watches,  silver  table  articles,  furni 
ture,  clothes,  and  other  such  portable  articles,  while 
his  own  share  of  plunder  consisted  of  two  silver 
watches,  three  pairs  of  silver  buckles,  a  pair  of  woman's 
stockings,  half  a  dozen  fine  linen  shirts,  two  fine  table- 
covers,  silver  spoons,  five  Spanish  dollars,  and  four 
York  shillings,  while  on  the  hasty  retreat  he  lost  a 
bag  containing  a  dozen  fine  pocket-handkerchiefs,  two 
dozen  silk  stockings,  six  silver  dishes,  and  a  silver 
goblet.  The  German  officers  complained  that  the  dis 
cipline  of  their  men  was  ruined  by  the  bad  example  of 
the  English,  and  that  the  only  result  was  to  intimidate 
the  loyal  and  exasperate  the  rebel  Americans.  Knyp 
hausen  was  praised  by  Clinton  for  his  conduct,  and 
that,  of  course,  included  these  very  foraging  expedi 
tions,  so  that  the  fault  lay  with  his  superior.  Knyp 
hausen  himself  led  a  strong  force  into  New  Jersey ; 
one  of  his  officers,  Ebenauer,  fell  and  was  buried  at 


82  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Springfield,  and  Washington  himself  paid  him  the 
tribute  of  respect  for  his  great  personal  bravery,  and 
directed  that  he  should  be  buried  with  military  honors. 
The  arrival  of  new  recruits  from  Germany  brought 
another  volunteer  force  of  over  eight  hundred  men 
from  Hanau,  which  helped  to  swell  the  strength  of 
Emmerich's  command.  The  Southern  army  under 
Cornwallis  included  many  German  soldiers,  and  the 
gallantry  of  Bose's  regiment  at  Guilford  was  so 
marked  that  it  was  recognized  by  special  mention  by 
the  commanding  general,  in  the  New  York  and  Lon 
don  papers,  and  by  its  German  prince.  The  Hessian 
yagers  under  Ewald,  too,  won  general  praise  for  their 
heroic  courage,  and  the  good  example  set  by  them  in 
being  foremost  in  the  attack  and  always  ready  on  the 
defensive.  Ewald  himself  had  the  credit  of  coming 
into  personal  collision  with  Arnold,  his  immediate 
commander,  and  giving  that  traitor  a  clear  idea  of  the 
opinion  entertained  of  him  by  the  German  soldiers. 
Ewald,  on  his  return  to  Germany,  wrote  a  capital 
little  treatise  on  "  Light  Infantry  and  its  Uses,"  in 
which  he  gave  the  lessons  he  had  learned  practically 
in  America.  His  reputation  for  skill  and  success  in 
hanging  his  own  little  force  was  recognized  alike  by 
his  English  allies  and  his  American  foes.  It  consisted, 
at  the  outset  of  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  of  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty-five  yagers,  one  hundred  grenadiers, 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  83 

one  hundred  rangers,  and  thirty  dragoons,  but  at  the 
surrender  it  was  reduced  to  one-sixth  of  its  original 
strength.  The  other  German  troops  that  surrendered 
with  Corriwallis  included  the  Crown  Prince's  regi 
ment,  two  Hessian  regiments,  and  two  from  the  Rhine, 
and  with  the  men  there  were  eighteen  German  colors 
and  eight  guns.  Among  the  general  officers  of  the 
French  division  before  whom  the  conquered  army 
passed,  were  the  German  Counts  of  Saarbriick  (Zwei- 
brucken),  serving  with  their  German  regiments  in  the 
French  army.  The  German  soldiers  acknowledged 
the  courtesy  of  the  Americans,  and  the  kind  treat 
ment  shown  them  went  far  to  alleviate  the  pain  and 
mortification  of  the  surrender.  General  Muhlenberg 
commanded  the  small  escort  which  accompanied  the 
German  prisoners  of  war  to  their  winter-quarters  at 
Winchester,  and  treated  them  with  great  kindness  and 
consideration.  Later  on  they  were  sent  to  Frederick, 
Maryland,  where  they  found  a  hearty  welcome  from 
the  German  farmers  settled  in  that  region,  whose  hos 
pitable  houses  and  German  tongue  gave  the  prisoners 
a  sense  of  home  comfort  that  brought  with  it  great 
satisfaction.  Others  were  sent  to  Lancaster,  Pennsyl 
vania,  where  the  German  farmers  again  did  what  was 
possible  to  alleviate  the  weariness  of  their  enforced 
inactivity.  Many  of  those  in  Virginia  and  Maryland 
had  become  settlers,  married,  owned  and  tilled  their 


84  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

own  farms,  and  bought  their  freedom  for  a  fixed  sum 
of  eighty  Spanish  dollars.  Not  a  few  found  German 
relatives  and  friends  who  advanced  the  sum  needed  to 
release  them  from  captivity,  and  enough  more  to 
enable  them  to  become  land-owners  too.  Among  the 
escort  of  some  British  troops  there  were  forty  An- 
spach-Baireuth  soldiers  who  had  enlisted  in  the  French 
regiment  detailed  on  this  duty.  At  last,  in  April,  1783, 
peace  was  published,  and  at  Frederick  the  salute  in  its 
honor  was  fired  by  Hessian  soldiers  under  a  Baireuth 
artillery  captain,  who  made  the  fireworks  set  off  at 
night,  while  the  German  regiments  furnished  the  music 
for  the  ball  to  which  their  officers  were  welcome 
guests.  The  French  alone  offended  the  Germans  by 
repressing  their  loyal  cries  for  the  King  of  England, 
but  the  Americans  made  peace  all  round. 

The  Waldeck  regiment  sailed  in  October,  1778,  for 
Florida,  in  a  fleet  of  seventy  sail ;  of  these  sixty  ves 
sels  carried  troops  and  supplies  for  Barbadoes  and 
Carolina,  the  others  kept  on  to  Jamaica,  threatened 
by  American  privateers  and  pirates ;  but  arriving,  at 
last,  at  their  first  destination,  the  Germans  were 
enraptured  with  the  tropical  wealth  of  fruit  and 
flowers,  and  the  out-door  life.  Two  newly-born  chil 
dren  were  baptized,  and  the  four  soldiers'  wives  ac 
companying  the  troops  had  quite  a  little  flock  to  care 
for.  Late  in  January  they  arrived  at  Pensacola,  and 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  85 

among  the  Indians  who  welcomed  them  they  found 
a  countryman  from  their  own  native  district,  a  man 
named  Brandenburg,  a  deserter  from  the  Waldeck 
army,  who  had  become  a  chief  among  the  natives 
with  whom  he  had  taken  refuge.  A  good  many 
Indians  were  engaged  for  the  British  service.  The 
Spaniards  declared  war,  and  soon  captured  some 
German  soldiers  who  had  no  warning  of  this  new 
enemy,  while  the  rest  surrendered  at  an  early  sum 
mons.  Bad  weather,  bad  food,  and  bad  management 
soon  reduced  the  troops  to  a  helpless  condition,  and 
the  British  forces,  composed  of  Germans,  loyalists 
from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  and  Indians,  were 
soon  obliged  to  surrender  to  the  greatly  stronger 
army  and  fleet  of  Spain,  led  by  Galvez,  and  the 
Germans  again  returned  to  New  York,  leaving  some 
of  their  best  officers  and  men  in  the  marshes  of 
Florida. 

Nearly  three  thousand  recruits  were  sent  from 
Germany  to  fill  the  ranks  thus  reduced  by  war  and 
sickness,  but  some  of  them  were  a  whole  year  in 
making  their  roundabout  journey.  Knyphausen  and 
Clinton  wisely  tempted  the  deserters  to  return  to 
their  own  colo/s  by  pardon  and  gifts  of  money. 
Riedesel  foresaw  the  results  of  Washington's  plans, 
and  predicted  them  in  his  letters  to  his  sovereign 
long  before  the  English  seemed  to  divine  the  mean- 

8 


86  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

ing  of  his  movements.  Neither  his  warning  nor  that 
of  other  German  officers  could  influence  Clinton,  who 
finally  sent  reinforcements  to  Cornwallis  just  nine 
days  after  his  surrender.  So  well  had  Washing 
ton  covered  his  march  that  only*  when  it  was  too 
late  did  Clinton  find  that  the  Americans  had  gone. 
Although  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  was  the  vir 
tual  defeat  of  Great  Britain,  the  government  was  slow 
to  recognize  or  admit  it.  Germany  still  sent  recruits, 
paid  for  by  Parliament,  and  in  June,  1782,  nine  hun 
dred  men  from  Hesse-Cassel,  Hanau,  Brunswick, 
Anspach  and  Zerbst  sailed  in  fifteen  transports,  pro 
tected  by  three  frigates,  reaching  Halifax  in  August. 
Those  in  New  York  were  busy  strengthening  its 
defences,  and  Lord  Dorchester,  the  General  Carleton 
of  earlier  days,  came  to  relieve  Clinton  and  make 
peace. 

Operations  were  left  to  the  loyalists  and  other 
volunteers,  who  were  hardly  amenable  to  military 
rule  or  discipline.  The  Germans  in  New  York  were 
soon  strengthened  by  the  addition  of  those  from 
Charleston  and  by  the  return  of  many  from  captivity, 
and  impatiently  awaited  the  definitive  peace  which 
would  enable  them  to  return  home,  but  that  was  not 
signed  until  November,  1783.  Of  the  German  troops 
sent  to  Canada  in  1777  a  separate  account  must  be 
given.  Arrived  at  Quebec  without  any  warning  from 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  8/ 

the  home  authorities  or  any  preparation  by  the  local 
officers,  the  poor  German  regiment  from  Anhalt  were 
kept  for  three  months  on  board  their  wretched  trans 
ports,  then  put  at  all  sorts  of  hard  work,  and  finally, 
when  Haldimand  took  command,  regularly  assigned 
to  military  posts.  Then  the  German  regiments  al 
ready  in  the  country  and  those  that  arrived  were 
placed  at  regular  intervals  in  winter-quarters.  Some 
of  the  soldiers  were  victims  to  the  ignorance  of  their 
officers  of  the  severity  and  dangers  of  a  Canadian 
winter.  A  few  of  the  men  captured  at  Saratoga 
succeeded  in  reaching  their  comrades  on  the  north 
ern  frontier.  The  Germans  in  Canada  numbered 
over  two  thousand  Brunswick  and  three  hundred 
Hanau  soldiers,  and  their  second  winter  was  made 
comfortable  by  an  abundant  supply  of  suitable  cloth 
ing  and  by  a  wiser  management.  Still  there  were 
mutual  desertions,  Germans  going  over  to  the  Ameri 
cans,  and  Americans  coming  into  the  British  lines. 
Riedesel  came  with  nearly  a  thousand  Germans,  and 
his  relations  to  Haldimand  were  of  great  use  to  both 
men.  Haldimand  had  served  in  Germany  in  the 
Seven  Years'  war,  and  in  the  old  French  war  in 
Canada,  and  was  friendly  to  the  Germans,  who  liked 
and  respected  him.  Riedesel  wanted  to  carry  out 
Clinton's  plan  of  a  great  expedition  to  the  West,  to 
threaten  the  Americans  from  a  new  quarter,  but  Hal- 


88  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

dimand  saw  that  it  was  a  hopeless  undertaking,  and 
showed  by  a  number  of  small  detachments  sent  in 
various  directions,  that  no  large  bodies  could  be 
moved  so  far  safely.  Canada,  too,  was  full  of  unruly 
elements,  and  the  prisons  were  full  of  men  suspected 
of  disloyalty  and  conspiracy.  The  short  summers 
were  spent  in  preparations  for  the  long  and  severe 
winters,  and  no  real  campaign  was  ever  undertaken. 
In  1782,  Carleton  warned  Haldimand  and  Riedesel 
against  an  attack  by  the  Americans,  and  the  fifth  and 
sixth  arrival  of  German  recruits  to  fill  their  regiments 
was  welcomed  as  a  substantial  gain.  The  Brunswick 
corps  again  numbered  nearly  three  thousand,  while 
nearly  half  that  number  were  still  prisoners  of  war. 
The  Germans  became  expert  on  snow-shoes,  and  were 
ready  for  a  campaign  even  in  winter.  In  February, 
1 783,  preparations  were  made  to  resist  an  attack  from 
Albany,  and  Riedesel  visited  the  distant  outposts  to 
see  that  everything  was  ready.  An  attack  on  Fort 
Niagara  kept  the  Canadian  generals  alive  to  the 
danger  that  threatened  them.  Even  the  reports  of 
peace  that  came  in  March,  1783,  were  received  with 
suspicion  as  intended  to  deceive  them.  In  April  it 
was  again  unofficially  reported,  but  only  through  a 
Philadelphia  newspaper,  and  even  Carleton's  official 
letter  was  received  with  some  doubt.  In  June,  Rie 
desel  was  notified  that  all  the  German  soldiers  were 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  89 

to  return  home.  Many  of  them  received  the  news 
with  regret,  for  their  stay  in  Canada  had  been  in  the 
main  a  very  pleasant  one.  The  scattered  German 
troops  were  finally  shipped  from  New  York  and  other 
convenient  ports,  and  gradually  returned  home.  Of 
thirty  thousand  Germans  hardly  half  returned,  and 
the  large  proportion  of  those  who  remained  did  so 
voluntarily,  making  their  new  home  the  beginning  of 
a  new  life,  very  unlike  that  of  their  native  land.* 

A  whole  literature  exists  of  books  on  the  American 
war  and  the  country,  written  by  soldiers  of  all  grades 

*  The  Hessian  regiments  in  the  British  army,  twelve  thousand 
men,  were 

1.  Leib-Regiment.           7.  Knyphausen.  13.  Angeneller. 

2.  Landgraf.  8.  Losberg.  14.  Pirnau. 

3.  Erbprinz.                      9.  Obrist  Donop.  15.  Dietforth. 

4.  Prinz   Carl.  10.  Rahl.  16.  Wehlwar. 

5.  Prinz  Friedrich.  II.  Mirback.  17.  Wieffenbach. 

6.  General  Bose.  12.  Huyn.  18.  Seitz. 

There  was  also  a  strong  Hessian  yager  corps,  both  horse  and  foot, 
besides  a  Waldeck  regiment,  an  Anhalt-Zerbst  regiment,  a  Hesse- 
Hanau  regiment,  and  five  or  six  thousand  Brunswick  soldiers. 

Tagebuch's  Johann  Konrad  Ddlba,  1777-83;  Ratterman's  Deutsch 
Americ.  Magazin,  January,  1887,  p.  239  (second  notice). 

Knyphausen  was  of  an  old  Austrian  noble  family  settled  in  Olden 
burg;  he  was  major-general  and  commanded  the  Second  Hessian 
Division,  and  in  1777,  on  the  recall  of  Heister,  became  lieutenant- 
general  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  German  troops  in  the  British 
army. 

8* 


90  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

who  had  served  there,  and  the  knowledge  of  its 
promised  advantages  was  thoroughly  spread  through 
out  Germany  by  the  very  men  who  had  been  sent 
across  the  ocean  to  help  reduce  the  rebels  to  good 
British  subjects.  The  German  princes  did  not  care  to 
have  their  old  subjects  returned  to  them,  now  that  war 
had  ceased  to  make  them  a  source  of  profit.  The 
American  Congress  made  the  tempting  offer  to  the 
German  soldiers  to  stay  and  become  American  citi 
zens.  Those  who  chose  to  go  sailed  from  New  York 
on  August  15,  1783,  and  received  a  gracious  welcome 
from  their  German  sovereign,  and  subsequent  detach 
ments  continued  to  arrive  and  to  reach  their  homes  with 
varying  fortunes  at  sea  and  on  land.  Those  that  had 
suffered  the  greatest  inconvenience  in  long  imprison 
ment  were  destined  to  the  greatest  discomfort  on 
their  return.  Riedesel  and  his  Canadian  German 
regiments  came  in  successive  fleets  and  at  last 
reached  England.  The  general  and  his  wife  were 
made  much  of  at  court,  and  in  his  native  Bruns 
wick,  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  he  was  welcomed  by 
his  sovereign  and  by  his  countrymen  of  all  ranks. 
Throughout  Germany  their  deeds  were  known,  and 
the  German  soldiers  who  had  served  in  America  were 
by  no  means  less  heroic  in  the  eyes  of  their  country 
men  because  their  services  and  their  sacrifices  were 
made  for  Great  Britain,  and  in  order  to  enable  that 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  $1 

country  to  maintain  its  control  of  the  colonies  which 
were  soon  to  welcome  so  many  Germans  coming 
peacefully  to  its  shores,  to  share  its  prosperity  and  to 
help  make  its  greatness  in  wealth,  in  numbers,  in  hap 
piness,  and  in  all  that  goes  to  create  a  true  republic. 
The  lessons  the  Germans  learned  in  America  at  the 
expense  of  Great  Britain  were  not  lost  upon  the  pupils, 
who  soon  put  in  practice  the  notions  of  independence 
acquired  in  the  unsuccessful  effort  of  the  mother- 
country  to  repress  that  of  its  infant  colonies,  and 
Germany  owes  much  of  what  it  is  to-day  to  what  its 
soldiers  learned  in  America  in  the  Revolutionary  war. 
The  Hessian  officers,  during  their  service  in  this 
country,  made  some  useful  scientific  contributions. 
Julius  von  Wangenheim,  captain  of  yagers,  used  his 
leisure  to  study  the  trees  in  the  regions  through 
which  he  passed,  and  published  the  result  in  a  work 
issued  in  Gottingen  in  1781,  under  the  title,  "  Descrip 
tion  of  American  Trees  and  Bushes  with  reference  to 
German  Forests." 

Dr.  Johann  David  Schopf,  a  military  surgeon  from 
Baireuth,  who  served  with  the  German  troops  in  the 
British  forces  during  the  Revolution,  made  a  careful 
study  of  plants  useful  in  medicine,  and  found  abun 
dant  material  during  his  stay  in  New  York.  After  the 
peace  he  travelled  through  the  United  States  as  far  as 
Florida,  became  acquainted  with  G.  H.  E.  Muhlenberg, 


Q2  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

brother  of   General   Muhlenberg,   himself  a  leading 
botanist  in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and  on  his  return 
to   Germany  maintained  frequent  correspondence  and 
exchange  of  specimens  with  the  German-American 
clergyman.      The  latter  gave  Schopf  his  manuscript 
for  use  in  the  preparation   of  a  book  published  in 
Germany    in    1787:    "  Materia    Medica    Americanis 
Septentrionalis   Potissimum    Regni  Vegetabilis,"   Er- 
langen,  pp.   170.     It  is   described  at  length  in  Prof. 
Maisch's  admirable  notice  of  Muhlenberg,  read  be 
fore   the    Pionier   Verein   at    Philadelphia,   in    May, 
1886,  and  reprinted  from  the  Pharmaceutische  Rund 
schau  for  June  of  that  year.     It  is  a   medical  flora, 
in  which  the  plants  useful  in  medicine  are  described 
on   the   system    of   Linnaeus,    with   brief    notices    of 
their  application    and  effect.      It  quotes   freely  from 
the   medical   botanies  of  Bartram,  Clayton,  Golden, 
Kalm,  Catesby,  and  others,  and  speaks  of  the  help 
received  by  letter  and  word  of  mouth  from  Amer 
ican   botanists.      In   a   letter   to    Muhlenberg,   dated 
Baireuth,  April   3,    1786,  Schopf  speaks  of  his   own 
collections  made  when  he  was  stationed  in  New  York, 
and  during  his  journey  from  Rhode  Island  to  Florida, 
and  of  his  catalogue  of  nearly  four  hundred  plants  he 
found  in  North  America,  which  were  useful  in  medi 
cine.     Some  had  been  long  known;   of  others  he  had 
been  the  first  to  point  out  their  virtues,  and  he  hopes 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  93 

that  he  has  done  the  country  service  enough  in  this 
way  to  atone  for  any  injury  he  had  rendered  it  in 
being  employed  in  the  army  that  sought  to  subjugate 
it.  Many  of  the  specimens  he  had  sent  home  from 
America  during  the  war  had  been  lost  on  the  way,  but 
he  had  been  able  to  replace  them  on  his  second  and 
more  peaceful  visit,  and  he  congratulates  his  American 
correspondent  on  the  fact  that  America  has  a  rich 
domestic  treasure  in  its  indigenous  plants  useful  in 
medicine,  needing  only  a  few  Indian  roots  and  plants 
to  make  a  perfect  pharmaceutical  collection.  Schopf, 
too,  was  useful  in  bringing  German  scientific  men  into 
communication  with  those  of  America,  and  through 
his  friendly  interposition  Muhlenberg  was  able  to  ex 
change  letters  and  collections  with  Hoffman  of 
Erlangen,  Gottingen,  and  Moscow,  Hedwig  of  Leipsic, 
and  Schreber  of  Erlangen,  one  of  the  best  pupils  of 
Linnaeus.  Muhlenberg's  name  and  his  services  to 
botanical  science  were  perpetuated  by  the  frequency 
with  which  both  American  and  foreign  botanists  have 
given  his  name  to  new  species,  and  thus  the  German- 
American  is  made  known  to  all  students  of  botany 
for  the  example  he  set  of  friendly  exchange  of  knowl 
edge  with  all  fellow-workers. 

A  curious  evidence  of  the  number  of  "  Hessian" 
soldiers  remaining  in  the  United  States  after  the 
Revolutionary  war  is  found  in  an  ingenious  little 


94  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

volume  of  travels,  "  Nachrichten  und  Erfahrungen 
iiber  die  vereinigten  Staaten  von  Amerika,  Gesam- 
melt  auf  seie  Reise  in  den  Jahren  1806  bis  1808,  von 
einem  Rhinelander,"  published  in  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,  1812.  The  author  found  them  in  Baltimore, 
where  one-third  of  the  population  was  German;  in 
North  Carolina,  where  he  found  the  descendants 
of  Germans  settled  there  in  1710,  still  ready  to 
welcome  new-comers  from  the  Fatherland ;  in  Ohio, 
still  the  wild  West ;  at  Havre  de  Grace,  which  the 
author  puts  on  the  river  "Skulkhill;"  in  Boston,  a 
doctor,  a  musician,  and  several  mechanics  of  various 
trades,  who  had  served  with  the  Hessians,  the  Ans- 
pachers,  and  other  German  regiments,  and  apparently 
flourished  in  their  various  pursuits,  none  the  worse 
for  their  original  employment.  In  Halifax,  too,  he 
found  two  surgeons  who  had  come  over  with  the 
Brunswickers,  and  a  baker  who  had  been  in  the  Hes 
sian  service,  and,  like  many  of  his  comrades,  found 
tavern-keeping  a  short  road  to  fortune  in  civil 
life. 

A  very  curious  picture  of  the  dealing  at  that  time 
with  soldiers  is  given  in  his  account  of  some  Bohe 
mians  and  Hungarians  he  found  working  in  the 
mines  near  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia.  They  had  been 
soldiers  in  the  Austrian  army;  were  taken  prison- 
ers  by  the  French  in  Italy  in  1796;  were  sent  to 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 


95 


Pavia ;  were  allowed  to  enlist  in  the  Spanish  service ; 
were  sent  to  the  West  Indies,  but  on  the  way 
were  captured  by  the  English  and  sent  to  Surinam, 
where  they  were  enlisted  for  five  years,  and  then, 
on  being  discharged,  were  sent  to  Halifax,  there  to 
find  work. 

At  Lunenburg,  Nov^a  Scotia,  he  found  a  large  Ger 
man  colony,  mostly  descendants  of  the  "  Hessians" 
who  had  been  left  here  after  the  war,  and  it  is  a 
striking  commentary  on  the  indifference  of  the  Brit 
ish  government,  that  these  Germans  sought  the  help 
of  this  traveller  to  enable  them  to  get  from  Germany 
clergymen  for  their  Lutheran  and  Reformed  churches. 
One  settlement  was  called  "  North  Germany,"  so 
largely  was  its  population  made  up  of  Germans  and 
the  descendants  of  Germans  from  that  part  of  Ger 
many.  The  traveller  gives  a  list  of  the  postages 
then  charged, — eight  cents  for  forty  miles ;  ten  cents 
for  ninety  miles ;  twelve  and  one-half  cents  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles;  seventeen  cents  for  three 
hundred  miles;  twenty  cents  for  five  hundred  miles; 
and  twenty-five  cents  for  any  distance  over  that. 
Then,  too,  his  account  of  his  own  capture,  on  the 
return  voyage  from  New  York  to  Nantes  and  Bor 
deaux,  by  an  English  man-of-war,  with  the  condem 
nation  in  an  English  admiralty  court  on  the  ground 
of  an  attempt  to  violate  the  Orders  in  Council,  laying 


96  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

an  embargo  on  all  direct  trade  with  France,  shows 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  communication  between 
America  and  Europe.  He  tells  a  very  touching  story 
of  a  German  family  in  Nova  Scotia  waiting  patiently 
for  the  confirmation  of  a  report  that  they  were  heirs 
to  a  large  fortune  left  in  India  by  a  kinsman  who 
had  died  there  a  very  rich  man.  His  account  of  the 
success  of  the  Germans  in  the  United  States  must 
have  been  welcome  reading  in  Germany,  and  it  was 
heightened  by  his  description  of  the  good  fortune 
of  a  German  who  had  found  a  gold  mine  in  North 
Carolina,  and  started  a  gold  company  in  Philadelphia, 
which  bought  thirty-five  thousand  acres  of  land,  and 
published  very  glowing  accounts  of  the  prospecting 
in  Cabarrus  County. 

Mr.  Andrew  D.  Mellick,  Jr.,  in  his  paper  on  "  The 
Hessians  in  New  Jersey,"  pays  a  tribute  to  the  high  per 
sonal  character  of  the  German  officers  serving  with 
the  British  army  in  the  Revolutionary  war.  Similar 
testimony  is  borne  by  journals  recently  printed  giving 
the  contemporary  picture,  and  showing  that  the  story 
of  fears  of  the  Hessians  was  always  unfounded  and  is 
largely  the  creation  of  later  story-tellers.  One  of  the 
best  services  rendered  by  Christopher  Ludwick,  both 
to  his  countrymen  from  Germany  and  to  this  his 
adopted  fatherland,  was  the  kindly  example  set  by 
him  of  making  the  Hessian  prisoners  as  comfortable 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  97 

as  possible,  thus  leading  many  of  them  to  choose  Amer 
ica  as  their  home,  and  giving  us  many  families  of  note 
and  useful  citizens  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  those 
trying  days.  Even  in  Cassel,  quite  recently,  evidence 
has  been  produced  showing  that  the  Hessians  gave 
such  an  account  of  America  as  to  quicken  emigration 
and  lead  the  growing  tide  of  German  settlers  hither. 

Dr.  Johann  David  Schopf,  surgeon  of  the  Anspach- 
Baireuth  troops  in  America,  published  in  Erlangen, 
in  1781,  a  pamphlet,  translated  and  reprinted  under  the 
title  of  "  The  Climate  and  Diseases  of  America,"  by 
Dr.  J.  R.  Chadwick  (Boston,  Houghton,  1875,  8vo, 
pp.  31),  with  a  brief  introductory  note  in  reference  to 
Schopf,  and  a  reference  to  his  larger  account  of  his 
subsequent  travels,  published  in  1788,  under  the  title 
"  Reise  durch  einige  der  mittlern  find  siidlichen 
Vereinigten  Nord-Americanischen  Staaten  nach  Ost- 
Florida,  und  der  Bahama-Inseln,  unternommen  in  den 
Jahren,  1783  und  1784."  Dr.  Chadwick  says  that 
Schopf  did  not  return  to  Europe  with  his  fellow-sol 
diers,  but  remained  here  to  undertake  his  later  and 
long  investigation.  His  earlier  pamphlet  is  made  up 
of  letters  written  home  from  New  York  in  December, 
1780,  the  first  on  the  diseases  of  America,  the  second 
on  the  climate  and  weather  of  America ;'  and  as  he 
arrived  in  January,  1779,  and  his  stay  was  mostly  con 
fined  to  New  York  and  Newport,  "  Rhod  Eyland,"  as 

9 


98  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN   THE 

he  writes  it,  his  personal  observations  must  have  been 
very  limited,  and  his  generalizations,  which  are  very 
broad  and  sweeping,  largely  based  on  reports  at 
second-hand,  no  doubt  principally  statements  of  his 
fellow-officers  of  the  medical  staff  in  the  British  army. 
He  asserts  that  "  a  single  glance  is  all  that  is  required 
to  distinguish  an  American  from  an  European,  and  if 
the  latter  has  once  withstood  the  hardships  of  the  first 
change  of  climate,  he  may  forever  defy  competition 
with  the  native  American."  If  this  were  true,  there 
must  have  been,  since  his  day,  great  changes  in  the 
types  of  Americans  and  foreigners,  as  well  as  in  the  cli 
mates  of  the  two  countries.  Still,  his  little  book  is  of 
interest  as  showing  the  intelligent  interest  excited  in 
the  minds  of  the  German  soldiers,  both  in  and  out  of 
their  line  of  duty.  Another  of  the  German  soldiers 
to  write  on  America  and  the  Revolutionary  war  was 
(subsequently)  General  Baron  Von  Ochs,  whose 
"  Betrachtungen  iiber  die  neuere  Kriegskunst,"  pub 
lished  in  Cassel,  in  1817,  makes  frequent  and  generally 
very  commendatory  mention  of  the  services  of  the 
German  soldiers  in  America.  He  praises  especially 
the  retreat  of  the  British,  after  the  battle  of  Mon- 
mouth,  on  June  28,  1778,  which  was,  he  says,  "more 
remarkable  than  that  of  Moreau,  which  is  regarded  in 
our  time  as  a  sort  of  miracle,  and  really  was  so." 
At  Marburg  and  Berlin  there  are  preserved  the 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  99 

records  of  the  Hessian  troops  that  served  in  America, 
and  a  brief  but  succinct  account  is  given  of  them  in  a 
letter  dated  London,  June  23,  1886,  to  the  New  York 
Evening  Post  of  July  15,  i8S6.  These  were  removed 
from  Wilhelmshohe,  Cassel,  to  Berlin,  and  furnish 
many  items  of  interest.  They  consist  of  the  journal 
of  the  Hessian  Corps  in  America  under  General  Von 
Heister,  from  1776  to  1777;  under  General  Von 
Knyphausen,  from  1777  to  1782;  under  General  Von 
Lossberg,  from  1782  to  1784;  reports  from  Knyphau 
sen,  and  several  large  bundles  of  unbound  papers. 
Many  private  letters  are  preserved  in  these  archives, 
including  the  correspondence,  both  official  and  per 
sonal,  of  Lieutenant  Henkelmann  and  other  officers. 
They  deserve  the  attention  of  students  desirous  of 
contributing  another  chapter  to  the  history  of  the 
German  soldiers  in  America. 

In  the  summer  of  1785,  Lafayette  made  a  journey 
through  Germany  and  Austria.  At  Cassel  he  met  the 
Hessian  officers  who  had  served  in  America,  among 
them  "Old  Knyp,"  and  the  reminiscences  so  ex 
changed  were  very  agreeable.*  He  wrote  on  July 
14,  1785,  to  Washington:  "I  am  on  my  way  to  the 
Deux-Ponts,  where  resides  our  friend  the  future 

*  Tuckerman's  "Lafayette,"  vol.  i.  p.  167.  Lafayette's  Corre 
spondence,  London,  1837,  vol.  ii.  p.  113,  etc. 


100  777^    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Elector  of  Bavaria,*  and  to  Cassel,  where  I  shall  see 
again  the  Hessian  regiments." 

He  wrote  from  Paris,  February  8,  1786,  to  Wash 
ington  :  "  At  Cassel  I  saw  our  Hessian  friends,  and 
among  them  old  Knyp  [General  Knyphausen].  I 
told  them  they  were  very  fine  fellows;  they  re 
turned  thanks  and  compliments.  Ancient  foes  can 
meet  with  pleasure;  which,  however,  I  think  must 
be  greater  on  the  side  that  fought  a  successful 
cause." 

There  were  many  Germans  settled  in  the  colonies 
before  the  Revolution,  who  cast  their  fortunes  with 
the  young  republic  and  shared  in  the  struggle  which 
secured  independence  and  union. 

The  German  Battalion  was  raised  agreeably  to  a 
resolve  of  Congress  of  May  22,  1776,  four  companies 
in  Pennsylvania  and  four  in  Maryland,  to  which  was 
added  a  ninth  company  by  resolve  of  July  9,  1777. 
The  officers  were:  Lieutenant-Colonel,  Ludwick 
Weltener;  Major,  Daniel  Burckhart;  Captains,  Jacob 
Bunner,  Peter  Boyer,  Charles  Baltzel,  William  Rice, 
Bernard  Hubley,  Christian  Myers,  Michael  Bayer; 
Captain-Lieutenant,  Philip  Schrauder;  Lieutenants, 


*  The  father  of  the  two  counts  of  the  same  name,  who  had  been  in 
the  service  of  France  and  in  the  corps  of  M.  de  Rochambeau.  He 
was  also  called  Prince  Max.  He  became  King  of  Bavaria. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  IOI 

John  Weidman,  Martin  Sugart,  Jacob  Gremeth,  Jacob 
Cramer,  Godfrey  Swartz,  Marcus  Young,  David  Mor 
gan  ;  Ensigns,  John  Weidman,  Henry  Shrupp,  David 
Desenderfer,  Henry  Spech,  Jacob  Rabolt,  Christian 
Glichner,  William  Prux,  Henry  Hehn. 

An  independent  corps  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
men  was  raised  by  resolve  of  December  5,  1776,  of 
which  the  officers  were :  Captains,  John  Paul  Schott, 
Anthony  Selim. 

"Pennsylvania  in  the  Revolution,  1775-1783,"  2 
vols.  8vo,  Harrisburg,  1880,  edited  by  Messrs.  Linn 
and  Engle,  gives  very  full  lists  of  the  officers  and  men 
serving  in  the  Continental  forces. 

David  Ziegler  is  there  as  adjutant  of  Colonel 
Thompson's  battalion  of  riflemen,  the  First  Regiment 
of  the  Pennsylvania  line  in  the  Continental  service. 
Ziegler  was  originally  third  lieutenant  in  Captain 
Ross's  company,  enlisted  in  Lancaster  County;  he 
became  captain  December  8,  1776,  and  was  retired 
January  I,  1783,  dying  in  Cincinnati  in  1811,  aged 
sixty-three. 

John  Philip  De  Haas  was  colonel  of  First  Pennsyl 
vania  Battalion  from  October  27,  1775,  to  November 
13,  1776.  Had  been  major  of  First  Battalion,  Penn 
sylvania  Regiment  of  Provincial  forces  under  Bouquet 
in  1764;  he  was  made  colonel  of  the  Second  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  brigadier-general  in  1777- 
I  !>.  :<<*'. 


102  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Caspar  Weitzel  was  captain  in  Colonel  Samuel 
Miles's  Pennsylvania  rifle  regiment. 

In  compliance,  it  is  said,  with  the  dying  request  of 
De  Kalb,  his  sons,  Pierre  and  John,  were  commis 
sioned  ensigns  in  the  Pennsylvania  line  by  the 
Supreme  Executive  Council,  on  September  10,  1781, 
as  a  tribute  to  their  father's  memory  and  services. 

Peter  Weiser,  son  of  Conrad,  was  second  lieutenant 
in  the  First  Pennsylvania  Continental  Regiment.  He 
was  wounded  and  captured  at  the  battle  of  German- 
town. 

Rudolph  Bunner  was -originally  captain  in  the  Sec 
ond  Battalion,  and  later  lieutenant-colonel,  command 
ing  the  Third  Pennsylvania.  He  had  been  captain 
from  January  5,  1776,  and  major  from  March  17,  1777  ; 
was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  June  28,  1778, 
having  very  much  distinguished  himself  on  the  field. 

George  Will,  first  lieutenant  of  Captain  Moser's 
company  of  the  Sixth  Pennsylvania,  had  been  eleven 
years  in  the  Prussian  and  English  service. 

John  Rose,  surgeon,  June  12,  1777,  in  the  Seventh 
Pennsylvania,  was  Baron  Gustavus  de  Rosenthal,  of 
Livonia.  He  was  promoted  March  I,  1780,  and  made 
aide-de-camp  to  General  Irvine  on  July  8,  1781.  He 
was  appointed  ensign  Fourth  Pennsylvania,  August  9, 
1781  ;  was  made  clerk  to  the  Council  of  Censors  in 
1783,  returned  to  Europe  in  1784,  and  died  in  1830. 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  103 

The  German  Regiment  originated  in  a  resolution  of 
Congress  of  June  27,  1776,  directing  four  (subse 
quently  increased  to  five)  companies  to  be  raised  in 
Pennsylvania  and  four  in  Maryland,  to  serve  for  three 
years. 

Nicholas  Haussegger,  who  was  major  of  the 
Fourth  (Wayne's)  Battalion,  was  commissioned 
colonel,  and  Pennsylvania  furnished  the  largest 
number  of  officers  and  men.  The  regiment  was 
engaged  at  Treriton  and  Princeton,  in  Sullivan's 
division,  and  took  part  in  his  campaign  against  the 
Indians.  It  was  reduced  by  Congress  in  October  of 
1780,  and  finally  ceased  to  exist  on  January  I,  1781. 
Weltener  succeeded  to  the  command,  and  among  its 
officers  were  Strickner,  lieutenant-colonel;  Burckhart, 
major;  Woelpper  and  Schrauder,  captains.  Its  first 
adjutant  was  De  LinkensdorrT,  formerly  lieutenant  in 
one  of  the  King  of  Sardinia's  Swiss  regiments,  and  he 
was  succeeded  by  John  Weidman,  of  Reading,  who 
was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Cincinnati,  as  was  also  Peter  Peres,  the  surgeon. 

Armand's  Legion  was  originally  recruited  by  Baron 
De  Ottendorff  as  a  troop  of  light  infantry,  but  on  ac 
count  of  the  scarcity  of  well-disciplined  cavalry  it 
was  changed  into  a  dragoon  corps.  Nicholas  Diet 
rich  Ottendorff  was  from  Lusatia,  Saxony,  and  had 
served  in  the  Seven  Years'  war  under  Frederick  the 


IO4  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Great.  At  the  close  of  that  war  he  went  to  Paris, 
and  thence  came  with  Kosciuszko  and  Roman  de 
Lisle  to  America  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolu 
tion.  Kosciuszko  was  appointed  on  Washington's 
staff.  Roman  de  Lisle  was  made  a  captain  of  artil 
lery,  and  OttendorfT,  at  the  request  of  Washington, 
by  resolution  of  Congress,  November  8,  1776,  was 
appointed  a  brevet  captain  and  ordered  to  report  to 
Washington  at  White  Plains.  On  December  5  he 
was  directed  by  Congress  to  raise  an  independent 
corps  of  one  hundred  and  fifty,  to  be  divided  into 
three  companies;  he  was  to  command,  with  the  rank 
of  major.  In  the  spring  of  1777  his  command  was 
filled  in  Pennsylvania,  and  remained  in  service  until 
1780;  it  was  merged  into  Armand's  Legion,  and 
Ottendorff  is  supposed  to  have  returned  to  Europe.* 
The  captains  were  Dreisbach,  Selin,  and  Schott.  Bauer, 
the  lieutenant  of  this  company,  was  Lewis  Augustus 
Baron  de  Nechtritz,  who  became  a  captain  in  Ar 
mand's  Legion,f  and  served  to  the  end  of  the  war. 

De   Nechtritz   commanded  the  Sixth  Troop  after 
the  consolidation.    Among  its  members,  besides  many 

*  For  his  life,  see  Seidensticker's  "  German  Society"  and  Ratter- 
man's  Pionier,  vol.  viii.  p.  49.  He  died  in  Philadelphia,  in  1829, 
at  the  age  of  eighty-five. 

f  See,  for  his  life,  Ratterman's  Pionier,  vol.  viii.  p.  437,  and 
Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography ',  vol.  ii.  p.  I. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  1 05 

French  officers,  there  were  numerous  Germans,  and, 
noted  on  its  lists,  several  Hessians. 

In  Pulaski's  Legion  there  were  officers  and  men 
from  Pennsylvania,  of  German  birth.  In  Von  Heer's 
Light  Dragoons,  organized  as  a  provost  guard,  all 
recruited  in  Pennsylvania,  the  captain  was  a  Reading 
man,  an  officer  of  Procter's  artillery,  and  among  the 
enlisted  men  half  a  dozen  or  more  are  returned  as 
"  Hessen,"  a  fair  proportion  of  the  forty-two  non 
commissioned  officers  and  privates  of  this  useful  body. 
Among  the  original  members  of  the  Cincinnati, 
officers  of  the  Pennsylvania  line,  were  Jacob  Weitzel, 
lieutenant,  First  Pennsylvania  Regiment ;  David  Zieg- 
ler,  captain;  Francis  Mentges,  lieutenant-colonel; 
John  Strieker,  lieutenant,  Third  Pennsylvania  Regi 
ment;  P.  Peres,  surgeon,  German  Regiment;  John 
Rose,  lieutenant,  Third  Regiment;  Jacob  Mytinger, 
lieutenant. 

In  Henry's  account  of  Arnold's  campaign  against 
Quebec,  1775  (Albany,  Munsell,  1877),  is  a  reference 
to  the  company  of  riflemen  commanded  by  Captain 
William  Hendricks,  from  Cumberland  County,  Penn 
sylvania,  "an  excellent  body  of  men,  formed  by 
nature  as  the  stamina  of  an  army,  fitted  for  a  tough 
and  tight  defence  of  the  liberties  of  their  country." 
Hendricks  "  was  tall,  of  a  mild  and  beautiful  counte 
nance,  his  soul  was  animated  by  a  genuine  spark  of 


IO6  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

heroism."  He  was  killed  at  Quebec,  in  the  same 
attack  in  which  General  Montgomery  fell,  on  the  1st 
of  January,  1776,  and  the  two  heroes  were  buried 
side  by  side.  Provost  Smith,  in  his  oration  on  Mont 
gomery,  speaks  with  unstinted  praise  of  the  Pennsyl 
vania  riflemen.  Their  funeral  was  marked  by  the 
British  officers  with  every  mark  of  honor.  Of  Hen- 
dricks's  company,  raised  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Susquehanna,  scarcely  a  dozen  names  have  been  res 
cued  from  oblivion.  Of  the  flower  of  the  country, 
brave,  ardent,  and  patriotic,  and  nowise  daunted  by 
the  sufferings  of  the  Arnold  campaign,  nearly  all  of 
those  who  returned  safely  from  it  served  again  in  the 
Revolution.  He  is  spoken  of  with  equal  praise  by 
Thayer  in  his  "  Journal  of  the  Invasion  of  Canada  in 
1775,"  edited  by  Stone,  published  in  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  in  1867. 

In  Harris's  "  Biographical  History  of  Lancaster 
County"  (Lancaster,  1872)  there  are  many  names  of 
its  German  settlers  and  their  descendants  who  served 
as  soldiers,  with  honor  to  themselves  and  credit  to  the 
race  whence  they  sprang. 

In  Hamersly's  "  Dictionary  of  the  Army,"  and  on 
the  register  of  the  army  for  1784,  there  are  the 
familiar  names  of  General  Steuben,  inspector-general, 
and  his  aide-de-camp,  Major  William  North,  and  that 
of  major  Continental  Artillery,  Sebastian  Bauman, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  1 07 

captain   New  York   Continental  Artillery  Company, 
1776,  brevet  lieutenant-colonel,  1787. 

The  following  hitherto  unprinted  letter  of  De 
Kalb,  from  the  unrivalled  collection  of  Ferdinand 
J.  Dreer,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  is  so  characteristic 
of  that  hero,  in  its  manly  refusal  to  accept  military 
precedence  over  Lafayette,  that  it  is  well  worth  pub 
lication,  as  showing  the  noble  nature  of  the  man : 

"BETHLEHEM,  l8  Sept'.  1777. 

"SiR, — I  have  been  ever  since  I  had  the  favour 
your  letter  by  Mr.  Secretary  Thomson,  in  a  very 
uncertain  and  fluctuating  Situation  of  mind,  be 
tween  the  desire  of  serving  in  your  Army,  and  the 
apprehension  of  blame  from  home.  But  Congress 
and  your  Esteem  do  me  too  much  Honour,  not 
to  accept  your  late  proposals,  if  they  will  grant  me 
Several  points  I  think  essential  to  my  tranquillity 
and  entire  satisfaction,  ist.  That  I  may  be  at  Liberty 
to  give  up  my  Commission  if  in  answer  to  the  account 
I  will  send  to  France  of  my  proceedings  here  and  my 
behaviour  towards  those  officers  that  came  over  with 
me,  in  case  they  were  to  exclaim  against  my  stay,  in 
anyway  that  could  be  hurtfull  to  my  reputation  and 
honour. 

"  2nd.  As  to  the  offer  made  to  me  by  the  Ministry 
of  Mr.  Thomson  to  have  my  Commission  done  of  an 


IO8  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

older  date  than  Marquiss  de  la  Fayette's.  I  would 
decline  it  and  have  my  Commission  of  the  same 
day  with  his.  That  it  may  be  in  my  power  to 
show  my  regard  for  his  friendship  to  me,  in  giving 
him  the  Seniority  over  me  in  America,  in  order,  too, 
not  to  disgust  him. 

"  3rd.  That  Congress  will  be  pleased  to  grant  to 
Chev.  Dubuysson,  a  Commission  as  Lt.  Colonel  with 
only  the  pay  as  a  Major,  or  as  my  aid  de  Camp. 

"  4th.  That  they  will  please  to  make  provision  for 
said  Chev.  Dubuysson  of  having  the  assurance  of  a 
Pension  of  1200  Livres  French  money  or  fifty  Louis 
d'ors  to  be  paid  in  France  for  life  if  he  serves  this  and 
next  Campaign,  and  which  they  will  augment  at 
pleasuVe  if  he  serves  longer  and  they  are  satisfied  with 
his  having  done  his  duty  according  to  time  and  cir 
cumstances. 

"  5th.  That  if  Congress  are  disposed  to  do  any 
thing  of  that  kind  for  myself  it  shall  be  done  at  their 
own  terms  and  pleasure.  The  only  thing  I  could  wish 
in  that  respect,  would  be  to  have  the  favour  bestowed 
on  my  Lady  and  children  in  case  I  died  in  the  Conti 
nental  Army  or  any  other  way  while  in  their  service. 

"  On  said  Conditions  I  am  ready  to  join  the  army 
as  soon  as  possible  and  to  go  directly  to  Philadelphia 
from  Lancaster,  where  I  will  wait  for  a  Resolve  of 
Congress,  by  Chev.  Dubuysson,  bearer  of  this. 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  1 09 

"  Another  observation  I  think  necessary  in  regard 
to  the  immediate  Command  of  a  Division.  General 
Washington  has  perhaps  friends  or  deserving  officers 
to  whom  he  would  give  the  preference,  in  such  a  case 
I  should  be  sorry  my  coming  in  did  in  the  least  cross 
or  prevent  his  dispositions  in  this  and  any  other 
respects.  I  will  gladly  and  entirely  submit  to  his 
Commands  and  to  be  employed  as  he  shall  think 
most  convenient  for  the  good  of  the  Service.  If  my 
second  aid  de  Camp  I  am  to  chuse,  chanced  to  be  a 
foreigner,  I  should  be  glad  some  provision  was  made 
for  him  after  leaving  the  service,  in  proportion  to  his 
rank  as  a  Major. 

"  I  depend  for  the  Settling  of  all  these  matters  to  the 
Satisfaction  of  all  parties,  on  the  friendship  you  are  so 
kind  to  profess  for  me,  and  of  which  I  have  already  so 
many  proofs.  These  new  obligations  cannot  increase 
the  respect  and  high  Esteem  with  which  I  have  the 
Honour  to  be, 

"  Sir,  Your  most  obedient, 

"  Humble  Servant, 

"BARON  DE  KALB. 
"  COLONEL  RICHARD  HENRY  LEE, 

"  Member  of  Congress." 
This  is  endorsed  : 

"ComdtoBd  War 

"  1 8th  &  23d  Sept.  1777,  acted  upon." 
10 


IIO  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

General  De  Kalb  was  born  in  the  Franconian  village 
of  Hiittendorf,  in  Bavaria,  June  29,  1721.  In  his 
twenty-second  year  he  became  a  lieutenant  in  Lowen- 
dal's  regiment,  and  in  the  French  service  fought  at 
Rossbach,  became  a  general,  was  retired,  married  the 
daughter  of  a  Dutch  millionaire,  and  in  1767  was  sent 
by  Choiseul  on  a  mission  of  inquiry  to  the  colonies ; 
his  letters  have  recently  been  printed  in  French  by  his 
descendants,  from  the  originals  in  their  possession. 
In  1777  he  came  with  Lafayette  to  America,  was 
appointed  major-general,  and  fell  at  Camden,  S.C., 
August  1 6,  1780,  at  the  head  of  the  Maryland  and 
Delaware  troops.  Congress  resolved  that  a  monument 
be  erected  to  his  memory,  and  on  the  i6th  of  August, 
1886,  it  was  dedicated,  with  fitting  ceremonies,  at 
Annapolis.  The  statue  was  executed  by  Keyser,  of 
Baltimore.  The  site  is  on  the  State-House  Hill, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  building  in  which,  in  1783, 
Washington  resigned  his  commission.  Addresses 
were  made  on  the  occasion  by  the  Hon.  Thomas  A. 
Bayard,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  and 
by  Colonel  J.  Thomas  Scharf,  well  known  for  his 
researches  and  writings  on  the  local  history  of  Mary 
land.  Thus  tardy  justice  .was  at  last  rendered  one  of 
the  German  soldiers  of  the  Revolution. 

In  1 776  the  number  of  Germans  under  French  pay, 
according  to  Kapp  ("Life  of  De  Kalb,"  p.  21,  German 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  Ill 

edition  of  1862),  amounted  to  eight  regiments  of  in 
fantry,  with  four  hundred  and  forty-eight  officers  and 
twelve  thousand  and  thirty-two  men,  and  three  cavalry 
regiments,  with  ninety-six  officers  and  two  thousand 
five  hundred  and  twenty  men.  Their  ranks  were  kept 
full  even  in  peace,  their  native  language  was  used  in 
their  commands,  and  their  -officers  were  especially 
favored  by  the  king.  Marshal  Saxe  and  Marshal 
Lowendal  had  won  their  rank  by  hard  and  successful 
service,  and  their  countrymen  were  always  heartily 
welcomed  in  the  French  army,  to  whose  glory  they 
had  contributed  so  much.  So  slight  was  the  feeling 
of  German  nationality  at  that  time,  that  the  German 
soldiers  in  the  British  army  in  America  were  always 
called  by  the  name  of  the  little  district  from  which 
they  came, — Brunswick,  Hesse,  Anspach,  Waldeck, 
and  Zerbst, — never  Germans. 

De  Kalb  was  adjutant  and  quartermaster-general  in 
1760  of  the  Marshal  de  Broglie,  who  once  offered  to 
accept  the  dictatorship  of  the  American  forces,  much 
as  Klapka  during  our  civil  war  volunteered  to  take 
General  McClellan's  place.  As  captain  in  the  Anhalt 
regiment  and  as  lieutenant-colonel  on  the  retired  list, 
De  Kalb  found  himself  in  1764,  soon  after  his  retire 
ment  from  active  duty,  and  a  happy  and  prosperous 
marriage,  with  small  opportunity  for  military  employ 
ment.  After  two  years  of  fruitless  negotiation  with 


112  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Portugal,  he  was  given  in  1767,  by  Choiseul,  the  French 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  a  secret  mission,  that  of 
investigating  the  question  of  the  relations  between 
Great  Britain  and  her  disaffected  American  colonies, 
continuing  the  observations  made  by  an  earlier  agent, 
Pontleroy,  who  had  made  a  report  very  favorable  to 
the  strength  of  the  "  rebels"  in  1766.  In  January, 
1768,  De  Kalb  landed  in  Philadelphia,  and  from  that 
place,  New  York,  Boston,  and  Halifax  sent  to  the 
French  government  his  views  of  the  situation,  show 
ing  that  the  question  of  independence  was  one  that 
needed  only  time  and  favoring  circumstances  to 
become  a  matter  of  arbitrament  by  arms.  France 
found  in  this  a  prospect  of  avenging  its  losses  on 
England,  and  De  Kalb,  after  his  return  to  Paris  in 
June,  kept  his  chief  well  informed  of  all  that  was  being 
done  in  the  matter.  Although  neglected  by  Choiseul, 
the  information  carefully  gathered  by  De  Kalb  from  the 
local  journals  of  American  towns  was  used  five  years 
afterwards  by  Vergennes.  In  November,  1776,  De 
Kalb,  Holtzendorff,  and  other  officers  of  the  French 
army  were  engaged  for  the  service  of  the  American 
colonies.  In  June,  1777,  they  arrived  at  Charleston  on 
a  vessel  engaged  by  Lafayette,  who  was  really  under 
De  Kalb's  care.  Their  first  welcome  was  from  Huger, 

o        * 

whose  son  long  after  took  part  in  the   unsuccessful 
effort    to    release    Lafayette    from    imprisonment    at 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  113 

Olmutz.  After  some  discussion  in  Congress,  during 
which  De  Kalb  paid  a  visit  to  Bethlehem,  of  which  he 
gave  a  detailed  account  to  his  wife,  he  was  appointed 
major-general  as  of  the  same  date  with  Lafayette, 
and  in  October  joined  the  army  near  Germantown. 
He  described  the  operations  in  his  letters  to  Broglie, 
almost  in  the  same  terms  in  which  Howe's  adjutant, 
Von  Miinchhausen,  reported  them.  He  very  soon 
told  Broglie  that  there  was  no  possible  hope  of  an 
invitation  to  take  Washington's  place,  although  describ 
ing  Washington  as  too  slow,  too  indolent,  and  too  weak 
for  a  great  soldier,  vain  and  conceited,  and  owing  his 
success  more  to  the  mistakes  of  his  opponents  than 
to  any  merit  of  his  own,  not  even  taking  advantage 
of  their  grossest  errors,  and  always  maintaining  his 
old  prejudices  against  the  French.  In  his  letters  to  his 
wife  he  gives  an  account  of  the  intrigues  among  the 
French  officers,  quite  as  discouraging  as  the  hardships 
of  the  camp  at  Valley  Forge.  During  his  severe  illness 
in  Philadelphia  he  was  attended  by  a  countryman,  Dr. 
Pfeil,  who  became  his  fast  friend.  He  still  corre 
sponded  with  Broglie,  and  was  anxious  to  serve  in 
any  European  campaign  in  which  his  old  commander 
could  find  a  place  for  him.  Instead  of  rejoining  his 
comrades  at  home,  he  took  part  in  the  Southern  cam 
paign,  and  fell  in  battle  on  the  1 6th  of  August,  1780. 
One  of  his  sons  served  in  the  Deux-Ponts  (Zwei- 

10* 


114  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN   THE 

brucken)  Regiment  in  the  French  army.  Kapp's 
"  Life"  is  the  best  monument  of  the  typical  German  sol 
dier;  Versailles  has  his  best  portrait;  America,  at  last,  his 
memorial ;  but  his  name,  his  fame,  and  his  services  are 
secured  against  oblivion,  neglect,  and  injustice  by  this 
exhaustive  and  instructive  study  both  of  De  Kalb  him 
self  and  of  the  time  and  the  country  in  which  he  lived. 
De  Kalb,  Thatcher  says,  p.  189,  was  a  German  by 
birth,  a  brave  and  meritorious  officer,  a  knight  of  the 
order  of  merit,  and  a  brigadier-general  in  the  armies 
of  France.  He  had  served  three  years  with  high 
reputation  in  the  American  army,  when  he  fell  at  the 
battle  of  Camden,  August  1 6,  1780,  while  leading  on 
the  Maryland  and  Delaware  troops ;  he  was  pierced 
with  eleven  wounds,  and  soon  after  expired.  De 
Kalb,  a  major-general,  decidedly  opposed  General 
Gates's  plan  of  operations,  and  frequently  foretold  the 
ruin  that  would  ensue.  In  a  council  of  war,  De  Kalb 
advised  that  the  army  should  fall  back  and  take  a 
good  position  and  wait  to  be  attacked,  but  this  was 
rejected  by  Gates.  De  Kalb,  at  the  head  of  a  few 
hundreds  of  Continentals,  was  left  to  cope  with  the 
whole  British  army.  He  survived  the  action  but  a 
few  hours.  To  a  British  officer,  who  kindly  condoled 
with  him  in  his  misfortune,  he  replied,  "  I  thank  you 
for  your  generous  sympathy,  but  I  die  the  death  I 
always  prayed  for, — the  death  of  a  soldier  righting  for 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  1 15 

the  rights  of  man."  His  last  moments  were  spent  in 
dictating  a  letter  concerning  the  Continental  troops 
who  supported  him  in  the  action,  of  whom  he  said 
he  had  no  words  that  could  sufficiently  express  his 
love  and  his  admiration  of  their  valor. 

Among  other  Germans  serving  in  the  French  army 
under  Rochambeau  in  America,  were  Count  Fersen, 
Baron  Von  Holzendorf,  Counts  Christian  and  William 
von  Zweibriicken,  and  Baron  d'  Ezbech. 

Rochambeau  gave  the  command  of  the  Second 
Division  to  the  Count  de  Wittgenstein. 

From  the  same  treasure-house  of  original  material 
for  history  (Mr.  Dreer's  collection,  now  in  the  posses 
sion  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania)  comes 
the  following  letter  from  Steuben,  written  in  French, 
from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"  Dear  Friend 

"I  have  received  your  two  letters  of  the  I2th  and 
20th  February,— I  would  rather  have  seen  you  in 
person.  I  am  infinitely  obliged  to  you  for  your 
news,  for  every  thing  which  occurs  in  the  army  is 
of  interest  I  am  infinitely  sorry  for  your  account 
of  Col.  Bruchs  and  Major  Gils  and  would  be  glad  to 
help  them.  To  lose  such  an  officer  as  Bruchs  would 
be  a  real  misfortune.  I  have  already  spoken  of  it  to 
the  President  of  Congress  et  je  parlerai  au  bon  Dieu 


Il6  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

et  au  Diable.     I  would  move   Heaven  and  Earth  to 
prevent  it.     We  are  waiting  for  news  from   Gibraltar 
and  Charlestown,  as  the  Jews  wait  for  the  Messiah. 
I   have  bet  a   hat   on  the  fall  of  Gibraltar,  but  I  am 
afraid  I  shall  win  only  a  night  cap.     Our  papers  are 
full  of  epigrams,  abuse,  and  dreams  of  the  .late  Mr.  de 
Galvan  on  the  American  army, — his  friends  want  to 
immortalize  him.     Let  me  know  if  North  has  decided 
to  go  beyond  Boston,  for  in  that  case  I  fear  much, — 
but  no,  I  won't  fear  anything.     I  hoped  to  present 
my  compliments  to  Mrs.  Washington  en  route  when 
your  last  letter  reported  that  she  had  gone.     I  would 
like  to  see  you  in  my  hermitage, — where  I  am  better 
quartered  than  since  I  came  to  America.     I  rarely  go 
into  the  city,  but  my  friends  come  to  see  me  in  my 
cottage.     I  receive  visits  from    European    Grandees, 
such   as   the    Prince   de    Guimene,   of  the   house  of 
Rohan, — who  claim  to  be  next  after  the  Bourbons  in 
France.     The  Due  de  Lauzun,  the  Comte  de  Gillon, 
have  both  been  here  too.     Our  American  Grandees 
are  too  busy  with   great  affairs  to  pay  visits,  but  I 
have  no  pretensions,  for  I  have  paid  no  visit  except 
to  the  President  of  Congress,  nor  will  I.     Yesterday 
I  was  at  a  supper  and  ball  given  by  M.  de  la  Luzerne 
to  the  newly  married  Major  Moore  and    his  wife, — 
there  were  eighty  persons,  and   among  them   many 
pretty  women.  ...     My  fate  is  not  yet  decided.     I 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  1 1/ 

have  just  written  to  Congress  to  demand  a  Com 
mittee,  to  which  I  can  submit  my  uncomfortable 
situation.  I  get  no  pay,  rations  or  forage,  and  I  live 
on  money  I  borrow  to  pay  my  marketing.  My  case 
is  one  of  '  to  be  or  not  to  be/ — I  am  ready  for  any 
thing.  The  Secretary  of  War  will  find  it  no  harder 
to  replace  me  than  the  Adjutant-General,  whose  posi 
tion  he  offered  to  several  persons  of  my  acquaintance. 
'  Let  him  go'  is  the  favorite  phrase  of  our  Secre 
taries  nowadays.  I  saw  Robert  Morris  yesterday, — 
he  seems  more  affected  by  the  conditions  of  the 
army  than  anybody.  I  hope  that  after  the  1st  of 
January,  not  only  will  the  subsistence  of  the  officers 
be  regularly  paid,  but  that  it  may  be  increased.  Say 
to  them  that  no  matter  what  happens,  nothing  can 
prevent  me  from  being  their  advocate.  ...  I  cannot 
deal  with  Lincoln,  he  has  done  me  more  harm  than 
he  thinks,  but  I  don't  want  to  be  anybody's  enemy, 
not  even  his.  There  are  some  people  who  are  dan 
gerous  only  as  friends,  and  he  is  one  of  them,  so  it  is 
prudent  for  me  to  treat  him  with  indifference.  I  was 
not  the  aggressor,  I  sought  his  friendship,  and  if  he 
had  honored  me  with  his  confidence,  my  advice 
would  have  been  better  for  him  than  that  of  his  friend 
Cornel.  .  .  .  The  Prince  de  Guimene  wants  to  make 
the  acquaintance  of  the  General  in  chief, — he  said  so 
to  me,  and  if  my  finances  do  not  prevent,  I  will  go 


Il8  THE  GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

with  him.  Although  he  is  only  a  Midshipman  on 
the  Frigate,  he  is  a  young  man  of  the  highest  nobility 
in  France, — a  grandson  of  the  Prince  de  Soubise,  who 
is  Marshal  of  France.  I  give  you  warning,  so  that  in 
case  he  comes,  his  air  of  a  little  wild  boy  may  not 
prevent  you  showing  him  the  consideration  due  to 
his  birth.  But  what  nonsense  to  talk  this  way  in  a 
Republic.  My  respects  to  the  General. 

"  STEUBEN. 
"BELISARIUS  HALL. 
"  Nov.  the  26th." 

Steuben  was  a  Prus'sian,  born  in  Ciistrin,  near 
Magdeburg,  in  1730,  where  his  father  was  com 
mandant  of  the  fortress  and  lieutenant-colonel.  The 
son  distinguished  himself  in  the  campaign  in  Silesia 
under  Frederick-  the  Great,  who  made  him  a  lieu 
tenant-general  for  his  services  in  the  Seven  Years' 
war.  Taken  prisoner  at  Treptow,  he  was  employed 
by  the  Emperor  of  Russia  to  teach  his  soldiers  Prus 
sian  tactics.  Wearying  of  life  at  the  court  of  Prince 
Henry  of  Prussia,  whose  marshal  he  was,  he  gave  up 
his  income  of  three  thousand  dollars,  then  a  hand 
some  fortune,  and  came  to  this  country.  His  coun 
trymen  in  Lancaster  gave  him  a  fitting  welcome,  and 
Congress  made  him  inspector-general  and  major- 
general.  His  work  in  organizing  a  disciplined  body 
out  of  the  raw  Americans  was  all-important  in  se- 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED  STATES.  1 19 

curing  the  final  results  of  the  war,  and  at  Yorktown 
he  and  Muhlenberg  were  the  two  to  whom  the  sur 
render  of  Cornwallis  was  mainly  due. 

Thatcher's  Military  Journal,  p.  160,  gives  an 
opinion  of  a  contemporary  on  May  28,  1779,  which 
shows  Steuben's  methods  and  his  popularity  : 

"  The  Baron  Steuben  reviewed  and  inspected  our 
brigade.  The  troops  were  paraded  in  a  single  line 
with  shouldered  arms,  every  officer  in  his  particular 
station.  The  Baron  first  reviewed  the  line  in  this 
position,  passing  in  front  with  a  scrutinizing  eye, 
after  which  he  took  into  his  hand  the  musket  and 
accoutrements  of  every  soldier,  examining  them  with 
particular  accuracy  and  precision,  applauding  or 
condemning,  according  to  the  condition  in  which 
he  found  them.  He  required  that  the  musket  and 
the  bayonet  should  exhibit  the  brightest  polish ;  not 
a  spot  of  rust,  or  defect  in  any  part,  could  elude  his 
vigilance.  He  inquired  also  into  the  conduct  of  the 
officers  towards  their  men,  censuring  every  fault  and 
applauding  every  meritorious  action.  Next  he  re 
quired  of  me,  as  surgeon,  a  list  of  the  sick,  with  a 
particular  statement  of  their  accommodations  and 
mode  of  treatment,  and  even  visited  some  of  the  sick 
in  their  cabins.  The  Baron  has  sustained  the  office 
of  aide-de-camp  to  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Prussia, 
and  is  now  inspector-general  with  the  rank  of  major- 


I2O  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

general  in  our  army.  He  appears  to  be  about  fifty 
years  of  age,  and  is  venerable  and  dignified  in  his 
deportment,  rich  and  elegant  in  dress,  having  a 
splendid  medal  of  gold  and  diamonds,  designating 
the  order  of  Fidelity,  suspended  at  his  breast.  He 
is  held  in  universal  respect  and  considered  as  a  valu 
able  acquisition  to  our  country.  He  is  distinguished 
for  his  profound  knowledge  of  tactics,  his  ability  to 
reform  and  discipline  an  army,  for  his  affectionate 
attachment  to  a  good  and  faithful  soldier,  and  his 
utter  aversion  to  every  appearance  of  insubordination 
and  neglect  of  duty.  The  Continental  army  has  im 
proved  with  great  rapidity  under  his  inspection  and 
review." 

Among  the  German  soldiers  who  afterwards  at 
tained  great  fame,  Gneisenau  was  for  a  short  time  in 
America.  He  had  eagerly  sought  employment  in  the 
force  sent  to  reinforce  the  British  army,  but  it  was  not 
until  1782  that  he  was  gratified;  but  the  yager  regi 
ment  of  Anspach  troops,  in  which  he  was  a  subaltern, 
only  reached  Halifax  when  the  war  was  practically 
over.  He  remained  there  until  late  in  the  autumn  of 
1783,  but  it  was  not  without  marked  influence  on  his 
subsequent  military  career.  He  learned  a  useful 
lesson  from  the  generous  pay  and  liberal  provision 
for  the  care  of  the  enlisted  men,  so  much  greater  than 
that  of  the  petty  German  princes  in  time  of  peace. 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  121 

Still  more  important  were  the  two  valuable  additions 
to  his  stock  of  military  knowledge :  first,  the  value  of 
sharp-shooters  in  actual  warfare;  second,  the  advantage 
of  a  well-organized  system  of  popular  military  service. 
The  Hessians  had  learned  at  Flatbush,  in  1776,  the 
value  of  long,  thin  lines  and  of  riflemen  under  cover 
on  the  flanks,  as  against  the  close  columns  massed 
of  the  old-fashioned  German  system  of  tactics.  Gen 
eral  Von  Ochs,  a  Hessian  who  began  a  long  military 
life  in  America,  wrote  with  great  emphasis  of  the 
useful  lesson  learned  in  this  respect  from  the  example 
of  the  American  riflemen,  and  it  was  finally  adopted 
in  a  modified  way  in  Germany  later  on.  The  ex 
ample,  too,  of  a  general  arming  and  training  of  the 
whole  people  as  volunteers  was  followed  in  Germany, 
after  the  fashion  learned  in  America,  and  after  the 
French  had  won  the  first  successes  of  their  own  revo 
lutionary  wars  in  the  way  it  had  been  seen  in  practice 
in  America.  The  great  Frederick  himself,  although 
carefully  abstaining  from  any  participation  in  the 
American  war,  soon  learned  its  lessons,  and  in  the 
last  years  of  his  reign  organized  three  light  infantry 
regiments,  and  secured  the  services  of  many  Hessian, 
Brunswick,  and  Anspach  officers  who  had  seen  service 
in  America,  and  could  organize,  train,  and  handle  light 
troops.  His  successor  increased  this  force  to  twenty 
battalions  in  1787,  under  the  name  of  Fusileers,  and 

ii 


122  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

in   1788—89  published  the  regulations,  largely  drawn 
from  those  in  force  for  the  American  skirmishers. 

In  Southern  and  Middle  Germany,  in  Anspach,  in 
Wiirtemberg,  in  the  Odenwald  and  the  Schwarzwald, 
after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with  France,  local 
militia  was  organized  largely  after  the  American 
method.  It  was  later  on  that  Prussia  so  far  conceded 
its  advantage  as  to  mould  its  own  inelastic  military 
organization  on  the  same  footing,  and  thus  finally 
developed  its  full  power  against  that  of  France. 
Gneisenau  kept  in  mind  all  these  lessons,  and  as  fast 
as  he  could  adopted  them  for  the  use  of  the  Prussian 
army.  Scharnhorst  had  first  given  voice  to  the  need  of 
a  militia  or  "  Landwe-hr,"  and  Gneisenau  ably  seconded 
him  in  the  effort  thus  to  arm  the  whole  nation  against 
France  and  to  make  a  people's  war  in  defence  of  Ger 
many.  For  many  years  he  was  obliged  to  go  on  with 
the  old  tactics  in  use,  with  which  no  enemy  was  ever 
defeated.  Two  years  were  spent  in  this  sort  of  play 
in  the  Anspach  service,  and  then,  with  many  other 
officers  who  had  served  in  America,  he  exchanged  his 
petty  master  for  the  Prussian  king,  the  great  soldier 
of  his  time,  now  fast  drawing  to  his  end.  His  new 
light  infantry  was  largely  officered  by  French  exiles 
and  the  descendants  of  Swiss-French  officers.  His 
successor  perfected  the  plan  of  his  great  exemplar,  by 
increasing  the  strength  of  his  light  troops,  and  by 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  123 

regulations  intended  to  improve  them  in  freedom  of 
motion  in  the  field  and  in  sharp-shooting  in  skirmish- 
lines  in  front  and  on  the  flanks.  Thus  America  gave 
Germany  its  first  insight  into  the  value  and  impor 
tance  of  that  accuracy  of  aim  which  is  now  part  of  the 
training  of  both  German  soldiers  and  German  people, 
and  the  German  shooting-matches  are  the  natural 
result  of  what  was  learned  in  America  by  Germans. 
Among  Gneisenau's  comrades  in  his  new  service  were 
several  who  had  taken  a  much  more  active  part  in  the 
war  in  America,  and  from  them  he  learned  the  value 
and  importance  of  its  examples  for  practical  adoption 
in  Germany.  They  were  ready  to  recognize  the 
changes  that  had  become  necessary  in  the  old  tactics, 
while  the  Prussian  officers,  who  had  learned  nothing 
of  what  was  going  on  in  the  New  World,  were  firm  in 
the  conviction  that  nothing  was  better  than  their  old 
mechanical  methods.  It  took  the  example  of  the 
French  in  their  successful  invasion  of  Germany  to 
show  that  skirmishing  was  in  its  way  as  important  an 
element  of  modern  warfare  as  massing  in  column  in 
the  earlier  fashion  of  waging  war.  In  1803  he  and 
his  fellow-captain,  Vethake,  were  for  the  first  time 
personally  complimented  by  the  King  of  Prussia  for 
special  merit;  yet  even  then,  in  his  forty-third  year,  he 
had  to  wait  for  promotion  and  the  opportunity  to  put 
in  practice  his  lessons  learned  in  and  from  America. 


124  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

When  at  last  the  need  came  for  men,  Gneisenau  was 
recognized  as  one  who  could  put  in  practice  these 
lessons,  and  thenceforward  his  name  is  part  of  the 
best  page  of  German  military  history. 

The  German  officers  and  soldiers  in  the  British 
service,  too,  did  all  that  military  training  could  for  the 
cause  in  which  they  were  employed.  Riedesel,  Heis- 
ter,  Knyphausen,  Donop,  Specht,  Baum,  Breimann, 
Rahl,  were  true  soldiers,  even  to  the  death  in  some 
cases.  Their  men  made  good  Americans,  and  brought 
over  many  of  the  earliest  and  best  settlers  when  inde 
pendence  and  peace  were  finally  secured.  Brehm 
was  a  leader  in  Western  settlements,  and  Boone  had 
many  Germans  in  his  successive  emigration  schemes. 
Michael  Fink  and  his  companions  were  among  the 
first  to  descend  the  Mississippi  on  a  trading  expedi 
tion  to  New  Orleans,  where  the  officials  in  1782  had 
never  heard  of  their  starting-point,  Pittsburg.  Ger 
mans  again — Rosenvelt,  Becker,  and  Heinrich — were 
the  first  to  descend  the  Ohio  in  a  steamboat  in  1811. 

The  register  for  1789  gives,  captain  First  Infantry, 
David  Ziegler,  late  captain  First  Pennsylvania  Conti 
nental  Infantry.  In  the  Indian  border  warfare  be 
tween  1788  and  1795,  a  leading  figure  was  that  of 
David  Ziegler,  whose  story  is  typical  of  that  of  many 
of  our  early  German  soldiers.  Born  in  Heidelberg  in 
1748,  he  served  in  the  Russian  campaign  against  the 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  12$ 

Turks,  under  Catherine,  until  the  conquest  of  the 
Crimea  brought  peace.  He  settled  in  Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania,  in  1775,  and  as  adjutant  of  a  Pennsylva 
nia  regiment  more  than  half  made  up  of  Germans, — 
the  second  to  enlist  under  Washington  for  the  war, — 
and  as  senior  captain  of  the  First  Pennsylvania  Con 
tinental  Regiment,  he  won  great  praise.  Later  on  he 
raised  a  company  for  war  against  the  Indians  in  the 
West,  and  took  part  in  Clark's  expedition,  and  was 
with  General  Harmer  in  1790,  and  with  St.  Clair  in 
1791,  in  command  of  a  battalion  of  regulars.  He  was 
made  major  and  temporarily  assigned  command  of  the 
army,  for  six  weeks,  but  was  led  to  resign,  and  was  the 
first  mayor  of  Cincinnati,  where  he  died  in  1811. 

The  army  list  for  1805-6  has,  captain  Artillery, 
Michael  Kalteisen,  who  had  been  distinguished  in 
connection  with  the  Charleston  (South  Carolina)  Ger 
man  company.  Michael  Kalteisen  was  born  at  Wach- 
telsheim,  Wiirtemberg,  on  the  i8th  of  June,  1729;  in 
1762  he  was  established  in  business  in  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  where  a  large  German  population  had 
already  gathered.  In  1766,  with  fifteen  of  his  coun 
trymen,  he  established  the  German  Friendly  Society 
of  that  city,  and  by  the  time  of  the  Revolution  it 
counted  a  hundred  members,  and  was  well  enough 
off  to  advance  two  thousand  pounds  to  the  State 
for  defence  against  the  Crown.  On  the  I2th  of  July, 


126  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

1775,  he  set  on  foot  the  plan  of  a  German  military 
organization  which,  under  the  name  of  the  German 
Fusileers,  by  1776  counted  over  a  hundred  Germans 
in  its  ranks.  Its  captain  was  Alexander  Gillon,  first 
lieutenant  Peter  Bouquet  (brother  of  the  general  of 
that  name),  second  lieutenant  Kalteisen,  ensign 
Gideon  Dupont.  From  the  day  of  their  organiza 
tion  they  proved  themselves  true  and  ardent  patriots. 
In  1779  it  took  part  with  the  Continental  forces 
under  Lincoln  and  the  French  squadron  under 
D'Estaing,  in  the  siege  of  Savannah,  having  its  cap 
tain,  Scheppert,  killed  in  the  same  assault  in  which 
Pulaski  fell.  The  first  captain,  Gillon,  had  been 
made  captain  of  the  South  Carolina  fleet  in  1779, 
and  sent  to  France  to  buy  three  frigates.  The 
Prince  of  Luxemburg  gave  him  one  for  three  years 
on  a  guarantee  of  its  safe  return  and  a  fourth  share 
of  all  prize  money.  He  finally  led  a  squadron  of 
eighty  sail,  and  took  the  "  Bahamas."  He  left  a  son 
who,  in  1817,  was  a  member  of  the  Fusileers.  Kal 
teisen  died  in  1*807,  and  the  hall  of  the  German 
Society,  with  its  tablet  in  his  memory,  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1864.  The  Fusileers,  however,  still  exist, 
and  the  German  Society  still  perpetuates  the  useful 
charity  set  on  foot  by  him. 

Captain  Michael  Kalteisen  was   sixty-six  years  of 
age  when  he  was  appointed  captain  of  the  artillerists 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  12? 

and  engineers.  He  had  served  in  the  first  and  several 
succeeding  Legislatures  of  South  Carolina,  and  had 
been  a  public  official  for  more  than  thirty-five  years. 

Part  of  his  company  may  have  been  recruited  in 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  but  the  greater  part  of  it 
was  sent  from  the  North.  The  Charleston  paper  of 
August  8,  1 794,  says,  "  Lieutenant  Cox  with  thirty-six 
artillerymen  arrived  in  the  ship  Alexandria.  The 
troops  were  landed  at  Sullivan's  Island,  where  we  un 
derstand  they  a~re  to  be  stationed."  William  Cox  had 
been  appointed  to  the  infantry  in  May,  but  upon  the 
organization  of  the  artillerists  and  engineers  was  trans 
ferred  to  that  branch  of  the  service.  The  company 
was  stationed  at  Fort  Johnston,  Charleston  Harbor, 
and  was  commanded  by  Captain  Kalteisen  until  his 
death  at  that  post,  November  3,  1807.  In  December, 
1796,  Captain  Kalteisen  was  informed  that  a  large 
detachment  had  been  embarked  (from  New  York?) 
to  reinforce  his  garrison  and  render  his  company  com 
plete  ;  and  in  October,  1798,  when  Fort  Pinckney, 
Charleston  Harbor,  was  completed,  Captain  Kalteisen, 
commanding  Fort  Johnston,  sent  a  detachment  of  his 
company  there  to  take  possession.  In  the  consolida 
tion  of  1802  the  changes  made  in  the  company — if 
any  at  all— must  have  been  few. 

On  May  2,  1807,  a  British  sloop-of-war,  which 
had  been  forbidden  our  ports  by  the  President,  ar- 


128  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

rived  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston.  Kalteisen  at  once 
ordered  her  out  of  the  harbor,  threatening  to  fire  on 
her  after  a  certain  hour.  Captain  Love,  commanding 
the  "  Driver,"  replied  to  his  note,  and  left  on  time. 
Kalteisen  at  once  reported  by  Lieutenant  Wyndham 
to  the  War  Department. 

The  decease  of  Captain  Kalteisen  was  announced 
by  seventeen  guns  from  Fort  Johnston,  November  3, 
1807,  an<3  was  answered  by  the  same  number  of  guns 
from  boats  in  the  harbor,  and  all  the  flags  in  town  and 
on  shipping  were  placed  at  half-mast. 

Of  the  general  officers  of  the  Continental  army, 
three  were  Germans, — John  De  Kalb,  F.  von  de 
Woedtke,  F.  W.  A.  Steuben. 

In  the  pages  of  that  excellent  and  useful  journal, 
Der  Deutsche  Pionier,  the  organ  of  the  society  es 
tablished  under  that  name  to  preserve  everything 
that  relates  to  the  history  of  the  German  settlers 
in  this  country,  are  found  many  records  of  the 
Germans  who  served  the  cause  of  American  lib 
erty,  both  in  the  Revolutionary  war  and  in  that 
of  the  Rebellion.  Herkimer  (Herchheimer),  in  New 
York,  and  Muhlenberg,  in  Pennsylvania,  are  names 
that  will  long  preserve  the  memory  of  the  services 
of  the  first  German  soldiers  in  defence  of  their 
adopted  country.  The  records  of  the  Continental 
army  show  that  in  almost  every  regiment  there  were 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  I2g 

Germans,  and  in  those  of  Pennsylvania,  whole  regi 
ments,  battalions,  and  companies  organized,  officered, 
and  filled  with  Germans,  who  did  good  service  for 
their  country.  In  the  then  Western  wilderness  of 
Kentucky,  Daniel  Boone,  with  others  like  himself  of 
German  birth  or  descent,  did  their  share  in  securing 
American  liberty  in  their  new  home.  In  Virginia, 
North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  there  were 
many  German  settlers,  and  from  their  number  many 
went  into  the  patriot  army,  sharing  its  hardships  and 
contented  with  helping  to  secure  the  final  establish 
ment  of  American  independence  as  their  full  re 
ward.  In  Gustav  Korner's  "  Das  Deutsche  Element 
in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten,"  Cincinnati,  1880,  there 
is  a  graphic  account  of  the  Germans  from  1818  to 
1848,  with  frequent  reference  to  the  earlier,  as  well 
as  the  later,  Germans  who  took  a  distinguished  place 
among  the  soldiers  of  the  young  republic  in  its 
first  Revolution  and  in  its  subsequent  wars.  Her- 
kimer,  Lutterloh,  and  Weissenfels,  in  New  York, 
Muhlenberg,  in  Pennsylvania,  Michael  Kalteisen  and 
his  associates,  in  the  German  Fusileer  Company  of 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  oldest  military  or 
ganization  of  the  country,  established  in  1775,  are 
among  those  who  were  the  first  German  citizens  by 
their  sacrifices  and  their  services  to  secure  the  right 
to  a  place  in  the  home  of  their  adoption. 


130  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

De  Graffenried  and  the  Palatines  settled  by  him  in 
North  Carolina  were  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and 
war  raged  until  1713,  when  their  power  was  broken 
by  the  vigorous  resistance  of  the  sturdy  Germans, 
and  the  interior  of  North  Carolina  made  safe  to  emi 
grants.  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  that  year  gave 
England  large  concessions,  from  France,  of  territory 
in  America.  William  Penn  advised  making  the  St. 
Lawrence  the  boundary  on  the  north,  and  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  part  of  the  British  colonies,  but 
that  immense  region  was  still  left  to  France,  and 
that  country  agreed  that  it  would  never  molest  the 
Five  Nations,  the  great  Indian  confederation  subject 
to  and  allied  with  Great  Britain.  In  Parkman's  series 
of  admirable  historical  works  on  various  phases  and 
periods  of  the  early  settlement  on  the  border,  there 
are  found  frequent  mention  of  the  services  of  the 
Germans,  as  missionaries  of  peace,  as  explorers  in  the 
wilderness,  as  sturdy  settlers,  and  as  good  soldiers. 
The  forty  German  officers  sent  to  America  in  1756, 
to  raise  recruits  for  the  Royal  American  Regiment, 
with  its  four  battalions  of  a  thousand  men  each,  were 
the  nucleus  of  much  of  the  military  discipline  that 
stood  the  country  in  good  stead,  alike  in  its  struggle 
for  mastery  over  the  Indians  and,  twenty  years  later, 
in  the  contest  for  independence.  The  picturesque  red 
costume  of  the  Royal  Americans  is  frequently  spoken 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  131 

of  as  a  marked  feature  of  their  appearance  in  battle 
and  in  conference,  in  peace  and  in  all  military  dis 
plays.  General  Gates  was  one  of  the  officers  thus 
brought  to  this  country,  and  many  others  who  ren 
dered  valuable  service  in  all  grades  owed  their  train 
ing  in  the  art  of  war  to  the  experiment  thus  made,  in 
order  to  utilize  the  Germans  settled  throughout  the 
colonies. 

Friedrich  Heinrich  Baron  von  Weissenfels  was  the 
friend  and  companion  of  Washington,  Steuben,  and 
De  Kalb,  and  his  name  deserves  to  be  rescued  from 
oblivion.  Born  in  Elbing,  Prussia,  in  succession  to 
a  line  of  soldiers  (his  father  was  major  in  the 
Swedish  army),  he  served  in  the  Silesian  war  under 
Frederick  the  Great,  and,  like  Steuben,  won  at  the 
hands  of  that  royal  soldier  his  decoration  and  order; 
in  1756  he  entered  the  English  service  to  take  part 
in  the  old  French  war,  was  made  an  officer  in  the 
Royal  American,,  the  Sixtieth  of  the  line,  took  part 
in  the  attack  on  Fort  Ticonderoga,  and  the  capture  of 
Havana  in  1762.  He  was  at  the  side  of  Wolfe  when 
he  fell  at  Quebec,  and  served  in  the  same  regiment 
as  St.  Clair.  Put  on  half-pay  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
he  settled  in  New  York,  married  a  widow  Bogart 
there,  and  had  Steuben  and  Van  Courtland  as  his 
groomsmen.  As  soon  as  the  colonies  began  the 
Revolution,  casting  aside  all  thought  of  his  own 


132  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

interest,  he  offered  his  services  to  the  Continental 
Congress,  was  made  captain  of  a  regiment  organized 
in  New  York  in  1775,  and  was  brigade  major  at 
Quebec  with  Montgomery  and  Wooster.  In  1776  he 
was  made  lieutenant-colonel  in  command  of  the  Third 
Battalion  of  the  Second  New  York  Regiment  of  the 
line,  and  was  soon  promoted  to  be  colonel,  serving  at 
White  Plains  and  at  Trenton,  and  at  the  capture  of 
Burgoyne,  as  well  as  at  Monmouth.  In  1779  he 
was  second  in  command  under  Sullivan  in  an  ex 
pedition  against  the  Indians.  He  was  distinguished 
for  his  personal  gallantry,  and  was  honored  by  Wash 
ington  and  Congress  with  many  marks  of  grateful 
acknowledgment. 

The  following  attests  the  respect  of  his  old  com 
mander  ;  it  is  the  copy  of  an  autograph  letter,  hitherto 
unprinted,  of  Washington  to  Colonel  Weissenfels : 

"  MOUNT  VERNON,  I5th  Mar.  1785. 
"Sir 

"  I  was  favored  with  your  letter  of  the  2  Ist  of  Feby. 
by  the  last  Post.  It  never  fails  to  give  me  pain  when 
I  receive  an  ace1  of  the  sufferings  of  a  deserving 
officer,  in  which  light  I  always  considered  you.  It 
ever  has  been  amongst  my  first  wishes  that  the  cir 
cumstances  of  the  Public  had  been  such  as  to  have 
prevented  the  great  loss  which  both  officers  & 
soldiers  have  sustained  by  the  depreciation  of  their 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  133 

certificates.  And  that  each  State  might  have  it  in  its 
power  to  do  something  for  those  of  its  own  line  in  its 
civil  departments.  But  having  many  to  provide  for 
&  few  places  or.  things  to  bestow,  it  is  matter  of  little 
wonder  that  many,  very  many,  should  go  unnoticed, 
or  to  speak  more  properly,  unprovided  for.  It  has 
ever  been  a  maxim  with  me,  &  it  gives  regularity  & 
weight  to  my  Certificates,  to  found  them  upon  the 
testimony  of  the  General  Officers  under  whom  the 
Applicant  had  served.  This  brings  with  it  dates  & 
circumstances  with  which  I  am  oftentimes  unac 
quainted.  In  your  case  it  is  essentially  necessary, 
because  from  your  long  having  been  out  of  the  Con 
tinental  line  of  the  Army,  I  cannot  with  precision 
speak  to  facts.  If  therefore  as  you  have  been  in  the 
service  of  the  State  of  New  York,  you  will  forward 
to  me  the  testimonial  of  his  Excelly  Govr  Clinton,  I 
will  gladly  accompany  it  with  a  certificate  of  mine,  if 
you  think  it  will  be  of  any  service.  To  do  wh  can 
only  be  attended  with  a  little  delay,  as  letters  will 
come  and  go  free  from  Postage. — With  esteem  and 
regard  I  am  Sir 

"  Yr.  most  Ob*  Serv1 

"  G°  WASHINGTON. 

"  To  COL.  FREDERICK  WEISSENFELS 
"  New  York. 

"  Free      G°  WASHINGTON." 

12 


134  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  original  certificate : 

"  I  certify  that  Frederick  Weissenfels  Esqre  has 
served  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States  of  America 
from  the  year  1775  until  the  reduction  which  took 
place  in  1780.  That  in  the  year  1776  he  was  pro 
moted  to  the  rank  of  Lt.  Co1.,  and  continued  there 
until  the  reduction  above  mentioned ;  after  which  (as 
a  testimony  of  the  good  opinion  entertained  of  him) 
he  was  appointed  by  the  State  of  New  York  (in 
which  he  is  a  citizen)  to  command  a  Regiment  of 
State  Troops. — That  during  the  whole  of  this  period, 
as  far  as  his  conduct  came  under  my  observation,  and 
from  the  information  of  the  General  Officers  under 
whose  immediate  orders  he  served,  he  displayed  a 
zeal,  bravery  &  intelligence  which  did  honor  to  the 
military  character;  &  in  every  respect,  has  conducted 
himself  as  a  gentleman  &  good  citizen.  Given  at 
Mount  Vernon,  this  ioth  day  of  April,  1785. 

"  G°  WASHINGTON 

"  late  C.  in  Ch." 

The  originals  are  in  possession  of  E.  B.  Anderson, 
Esq.,  of  Newport,  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  A. 
R.  Ellery  and  his  wife,  Charlotte  Weissenfels.  With 
these  there  is  the  following  brief  autobiography : 

"  Frederick  de  Weissenfels  was  born  in  the  King 
dom  of  Prussia,  A.D.  1728,  in  the  district  called  Same- 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  135 

land,  six  miles  from  the  city  of  Elbingen,  a  Hanse 
town  on  the  river  Elbe, — was  educated  in  an  academy 
at  Konigsbergh,  with  the  Earl  of  Dohna  and  Earl  of 
Swerin, — served  the  King  of  Prussia,  during  the  war 
with  Austria  and  Saxony,  in  a  Regiment  of  Dra 
goons,  six  years  the  United  Provinces  of  Holland  in 
a  Regiment  of  Heavy  Calvallary  [sic]  in  garrison  at 
Zutphen,  four  years  the  King  of  England  in  the 
Royal  American  Col  [onial]  Regiment  of  foot  four 
years,  and  the  States  of  America  during  the  revolu 
tion  eight  years,  was  married  in  New  York  to  Mary 
Schurmur  only  daughter  of  John  Schurmur  a  Mer 
chant  from  Bristol  O.  E.,  by  her  he  had  eight  chil 
dren,  two  of  them  died  in  infancy,  the  surviving  them 
were  (vitz)  Ann,  Charles  Frederick,  Cathrine  Mary, 
George  John,  and  Mary  Charlotte." 

He  died  in  New  Orleans  on  May  14,  1806,  aged 
seventy-eight,  and  a  newspaper  adds,  "  impoverished 
by  the  war,  he  held  a  place  in  the  police."  He  was 
honored  by  a  military  funeral,  in  recognition  of  his 
services  at  White  Plains,  Trenton,  Burgoyne's  sur 
render,  Monmouth,  and  Sullivan's  expedition.  His 
son  Charles  F.,  born  July  24,  1/59,  married  Rhoda 
Salter,  of  New  Jersey,  and  died  February  n,  1795, 
having  been  appointed  in  1/79  a  lieutenant  in  the 
Second  New  York  Regiment,  and  in  1787  captain 
of  a  company  in  Colonel  Morgan  Lewis's  New  York 


136  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

regiment.  He  was  the  first  Vice-President  of  the 
German  Society  of  New  York,  with  Steuben  as  its 
President.  He  was  one  of  the  original  members  of 
the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  and  his  fellow-Germans 
in  that  organization  deserve  to  be  chronicled  here, 
to  show  the  appreciation  of  their  share  in  the  great 
work  of  securing  the  independence  of  the  American 
republic. 

These  originals  members  were : 

Major-General  Steuben. 

Colonel  Henry  Emanuel  Lutterloh,  a  President  of 
the  German  Society  of  New  York. 

Colonel  Nicholas  Fish,  of  New  York. 

Colonel  Frederick  von  Weissenfels,  of  the  Second 
New  York  Regiment. 

Major  Sebastian  Baumann,  of  the  iSecond  New 
York  Artillery  Regiment.* 

*  Sebastian  Baumann  was  major  in  Colonel  Lamb's  regiment  of 
artillery,  his  company  having  been  raised  by  the  New  York  Provincial 
Congress  in  March,  1776.  He  served  from  1777  until  June  20,  1784. 
He  was  an  educated  officer  of  German  birth ;  was  a  resident  of  New 
York  long  before  the  war;  was  commissioned  early  in  1776.  He 
served  with  distinction  in  the  Northern  campaigns  of  177^-77?  an^ 
was  in  command  of  the  artillery  at  West  Point  in  1779.  In  1781  he 
took  part  in  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  and  in  1782  he  published  the 
only  American  map  and  survey  of  that  important  field  of  operations. 
After  the  war  he  was  postmaster  of  New  York,  where  he  died  in 
1803,  in  his  sixty-fourth  year. 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  137 

Captain  Henry  Ticbout,  First  New  York  Regiment. 

Captain  George  Sytez,  First  New  York  Regi 
ment. 

Lieutenant  Peter  Anspach,  Second  'New  York 
Artillery  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  Henry  Demler,  Second  New  York 
Artillery  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  Joseph  Freilich,  Second  New  York 
Regiment. 

Lieutenant  Michael  Wetzel,  Second  New  York 
Regiment. 

Lieutenant  John  Furmann,  First  New  York  Regi 
ment. 

Lieutenant  Carl  Fr.  Weissenfels,  Second  New 
York  Regiment. 

Captain-Lieutenant  Peter  Neslett,  New  York  Ar 
tillery. 

Captain-Lieutenant  Peter  Jaulmann,  Sappers  and 
Miners. 

This  list  is  of  the  Germans  who  were  members  of 
the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  in  New  York  alone, 
and  no  doubt  on  the  rolls  of  the  Society  in  other 
States  there  will  be  found  many  other  Germans 
distinguished  for  their  services  in  the  war  of  the 
Revolution. 

In  Seidensticker's  admirable  and  exhaustive  "  His 
tory  of  the  German  Society  of  Pennsylvania"  there 


138  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

is  a  brief  mention  of  the  services  of  the  Germans  of 
Philadelphia  in  the  patriot  cause.  In  May,  1776, 
Congress  organized  a  German  regiment  of  com 
panies  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, — the  Penn 
sylvania  companies  were  five  in  number,  and  those 
from  Maryland  four.  One  of  the  Philadelphia  com 
panies  was  commanded  by  Colonel  David  Woelpper, 
an  old  soldier,  for  he  had  served  in  Germany  under 
Frederick  the  Great,  and  in  the  old  French  war 
under  Washington.  The  German  regiment  was  first 
commanded  by  Haussegger,  and  it  served  with  credit 
in  Muhlenberg's  brigade  throughout  the  Revolution. 
Other  German  companies  were  raised  at  that  time, 
and  many  Germans  served  in  various  arms  of  the 
service.  The  fines  and  penalties  imposed  on  the 
German  citizens  of  well-known  rebel  principles  are 
all  recited  in  Seidensticker's  history,  showing  how 
strongly  the  German  element  in  and  about  Phila 
delphia  adhered  to  the  patriot  cause  even  at  the 
time  the  British  held  the  city,  In  Mr.  H.  M.  Jen 
kins's  "  History  of  Gwynedd,"  there  is  a  similar 
collection  of  evidence  as  to  the  stout  adhesion  of  the 
Germans  of  Montgomery  County  to  the  rebel  side. 
He  tells  the  story  of  one  of  their  number  who  was 
charged  with  the  serious  offence  of  giving  information 
to  the  enemy,  and  escaped  finally  severe  punishment 
on  the  merciful  ground  that  he  was  a  weak  poli- 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  139 

tician, — a  plea  that  would  cover  many  offences  in 
our  own  day  and  generation. 

John  Paul  Schott,  the  commander  of  a  battalion  in 
Armand's  legion,  was  born  in  Prussia  in  1744, 
served  as  a  cadet,  became  adjutant  of  Prince  Fer 
dinand  of  Brunswick,  came  to  America  in  1776,  was 
authorized  to  raise  an  independent  company  of  Ger 
man  dragoons,  led  the  right  wing  of  Hand's  brigade 
in  Sullivan's  army,  in  1779,  in  the  attack  on  the  Five 
Nations,  and  commanded  the  forts  in  Wyoming  Val 
ley  to  the  close  of  the  war.  He  filled  a  variety  of 
civil  offices  afterwards,  dying  in  Philadelphia  in 
1829. 

Washington's  mounted  body-guard  was  led  by 
Major  Barth.  van  Heer,  and  consisted  of  fourteen 
officers  and  fifty-three  men,  nearly  all  Germans.  The 
First  Continental  Regiment  of  Pennsylvania  was 
commanded  by  Colonel  John  Philipp  de  Haas,  who 
was  born  in  1735,  came  to  America  in  1750,  was  en 
sign  in  the  French  war,  became  a  brigadier-general 
in  1777,  took  part  in  the  expedition  to  Canada,  and 
served  with  credit  to  the  close  of  the  war. 

Christopher  Ludwick  was  born  October  17,  1720, 
at  Giessen,  in  Hesse-Darmstadt,  Germany.  At  seven 
teen  he  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier  in  the  army  of 
the  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  bore  his  part  in  the 
war  carried  on  by  the  Austrians  against  the  Turks, 


140  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

between  the  years  1737  and  1740.  At  the  close  of 
the  war  in  Turkey  he  made  his  way  through  great 
hardships  to  Vienna,  then  went  to  Prague,  where  he 
endured  all  the  distresses  of  a  seventeen  weeks'  siege. 
After  its  surrender  to  the  French,  in  1741,  he  enlisted 
as  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  On 
the  return  of  peace  he  went  to  the  East  Indies  in 
Admiral  Boscowen's  fleet,  and  spent  three  years  and  a 
half  in  different  parts  of  that  country.  In  1753  he 
came  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  successfully  en 
gaged  in  business  as  a  baker  until  1774.  He  was  an 
active  participant  in  the  struggle  for  independence,  and 
was  a  member  of  all  the  committees  and  conventions 
which  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  Revolution  in 
Pennsylvania,  in  1774,  '75,  and  '76.  In  the  summer  of 
1776  he  acted  as  a  volunteer  in  the  flying  camp,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1777  he  was  appointed  Superin 
tendent  of  Bakers  and  Director  of  Baking  in  the 
Army  of  the  United  States.  His  services  in  that 
capacity  were  fully  appreciated  and  acknowledged  by 
Washington,  who  formally  certified  that  he  was  a  true 
and  faithful  servant  to  the  public.  He  died  June  17, 
1 80 1,  leaving  his  estate,  much  diminished  by  his 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  his  adopted  country,  to  the 
German  Society  and  to  other  charitable  and  educa 
tional  purposes,  mainly  to  the  establishment  of  free 
schools.  The  sum  of  eight  thousand  dollars,  the 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  141 

value  of  his  residuary  estate,  and  other  property,  ag 
gregating  in  all  thirteen  thousand  dollars,  then  con 
sidered  a  very  large  amount,  helped  to  found  the 
Philadelphia  Society  for  the  Establishment  and  Sup 
port  of  Charity  Schools,  which,  in  turn,  paved  the 
way  for  the  existing  system  of  free  schools  in  that 
city.  Part  of  the  property,  bearing  the  name  of  the 
donor,  is  still  productive  of  an  income  devoted  to  the 
purpose,  thus  perpetuating  the  name  of  Christopher 
Ludwick.* 

Among  the  French  allied  army  sent  to  the  help 
of  the  struggling  colonies  were  many  Germans,  and 
the  investigation  of  H.  A.  Ratterman,  editor  of  the 
Pionier,  attests  both  their  number  and  influence.  It 
will  be  found  in  vol.  xiii.  of  that  journal  (1881) 
at  pp.  317,  360,  and  420.  Colonel  Esebeck  com 
manded  a  regiment,  "  Zweibriicken,"  the  German 
equivalent  for  the  French  "  Deux-Ponts."  In  Force's 
"  Archives"  many  of  the  details  of  others  are  given. 
At  the  time  it  was  a  matter  of  arrangement  be 
tween  neighboring  and  friendly  princes,  how  many 
of  the  men  of  one  country  should  enlist  in  the 
army  of  another.  France  had  troops  from  the 
Rhine  Provinces,  Baden,  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  Ans- 

*  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush's  "Life  of  Ludwick,"   Philadelphia,  1801. 
Reprinted  1831. 


142  'THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

pach,  and  Switzerland  in  its  service.  With  the 
Zweibriicken  Regiment  came  the  two  counts,  sons 
of  the  prince  of  the  name,  and  Captain  Haake. 

"  My  Campaigns  in  America.  A  Journal  kept  by 
Count  William  de  Deux-Ponts,  1780-8 1,  translated  from 
the  French  Manuscript,  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes 
by  Samuel  Abbott  Green,"  Boston,  1868,  8vo,  pp.  176, 
gives  a  very  full  account  of  the  final  operations  of  the 
French  troops  in  the  Revolutionary  war.  The 
author  was  one  of  two  brothers,  Christian  and  Wil 
liam,  sons  of  Duke  Christian  of  Zweibrucken,  of  the 
royal  family  of  Bavaria,  and  a  French  mother, 
Mme.  von  Forbach.  Christian  was  colonel,  and  Wil 
liam  lieutenant-colonel,  of  the  Royal  Regiment  des 
Deux-Ponts;  the  latter  was  wounded  at  Yorktown, 
and  both  were  commended  for  their  distinguished 
conduct.  The  younger  brother,  William,  was  born 
at  Deux-Ponts,  Bavaria,  in  1754,  and  entered  his 
brother's  regiment  in  the  French  army  in  1778, 
becoming  lieutenant-colonel  in  1779.  The  elder 
brother  was  born  in  1752,  was  appointed  second 
lieutenant  in  1768,  and  colonel  of  the  regiment  in 
1775.  In  his  journal  he  notes  the  fact  that  when  he 
led  the  advance  in  the  attack  at  Yorktown,  he  was 
challenged  by  a  Hessian  soldier  stationed  on  the  par 
apets,  crying  out  in  German,  "  Wer  da  f" 

The  brothers  returned  to  Bavaria  when  the  French 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  143 

Revolution  obliged  them  to  leave  France,  and  lived 
and  died  in  Munich,  holding  posts  of  honor  at  the 
court. 

A  battalion  from  Trier  served  in  Custine's  regi 
ment,  one  from  Elssass  (Alsace),  in  the  Bourbonnais, 
a  large  number  were  in  Lauzun's  cavalry  regiment, 
and  an  Anhalt  regiment  assisted  in  the  siege  of 
Savannah.  Among  the  German  officers  in  the 
French  service  were  Count  Fersen,  chief  of  staff  of 
Rochambeau,  besides  his  adjutant,  Von  Closen,  and 
his  chief  of  artillery,  Gau.  Count  Von  Stedingk 
commanded  the  Anhalt  regiment,  and,  like  his  friend 
Fersen,  belonged  to  the  old  Pomeranian  nobility, 
although  both  afterwards  died  in  the  Swedish  service. 

At  Yorktown  the  Germans  in  the  American  army 
fought  for  a  time  against  the  Germans  under  the 
English  flag,  and  the  commands  were  given  on  both 
sides  in  German.  A  detachment  of  Germans  placed 
the  French  flag  on  the  walls  of  Yorktown  after  its 
capture.  Among  the  prisoners  were  countrymen  of 
the  troops  put  over  them  as  a  guard,  and  many  of 
them  met  as  old  friends  and  neighbors.  When 
Tarleton  tried  to  force  his  way  out  of  the  lines,  it 
was  with  the  German  cavalry  under  Ewald,  and 
they  were  met  and  repulsed  by  the  Germans  under 
Armand.  Ratterman's  estimate,  that  eleven  thou 
sand  German  soldiers  remained  in  this  country  after 


144  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

the  war,  may  well  be  credited  with  recruits  from  both 
sides.  With  the  Germans  in  the  Pennsylvania 
brigade  of  Muhlenberg  and  the  Maryland  brigade  of 
Gist,  the  soldiers  of  the  German  regiments  in  the 
English  service  soon  made  friends  and  found  new 
homes.  Indeed,  the  Anspach  regiment,  two  days 
after  the  capitulation,  offered  their  services  as  a  body. 
Eelking  gives  a  list  of  twenty-eight  officers  of  the 
Brunswick  regiments  who  either  remained  or  re 
turned  here  after  the  war  to  settle. 

In  the  "  History  of  the  Early  Settlement  and  In 
dian  Wars  of  Western  Virginia,"  by  Wills  de  Haas 
(Wheeling  and  Philadelphia,  1851),  at  p.  344,  is  a 
brief  biographical  sketch  of  Lewis  Wetzel,  a  typical 
borderer,  a  brave  and  successful  Indian  fighter,  and 
the  right  arm  of  the  settlers  in  their  almost  ceaseless 
war  with  the  natives,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most 
noted  of  the  hunters  in  the  West.  A  good  friend 
to  his  white  neighbors,  he  was  of  a  brutal  and  violent 
temper,  and  for  the  Indians  he  knew  no  pity  and 
felt  no  generosity.  They  had  killed  many  of  his 
friends  and  relations,  among  others  his  father,  and  he 
hunted  them  in  peace  or  war  like  wolves.  Some  of 
his  feats  were  cold-blooded  murders,  as  when  he 
killed  an  Indian  who  came  in  to  treat  with  General 
Harmer,  under  pledge  of  safe  conduct;  one  of  his 
brothers  slew  in  like  fashion  a  chief  who  came  to  see 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  145 

Colonel  Brodhead.  But  the  frontiersmen  loved  him, 
for  his  mere  presence  was  a  protection,  so  great  was 
the  terror  he  inspired  among  the  red  men.  His  hardi 
hood  and  address  were  only  equalled  by  his  daring 
and  courage.  He  was  literally  a  man  without  fear.  In 
his  few  days  of  peace  his  chief  amusements  were 
wrestling,  foot-racing,  and  shooting  at  a  mark.  He 
was  a  dandy,  too,  after  the  fashion  of  the  backwoods, 
especially  proud  of  his  mane  of  long  hair,  which, 
when  he  let  it  down,  hung  to  his  knees.  He  often 
hunted  alone  in  the  Indian  country,  a  hundred  miles 
beyond  the  Ohio.  Once  he  surprised  four  Indians 
sleeping  in  their  camp ;  falling  on  them,  he  killed 
three.  Another  time,  when  pursued  by  the  same 
number  of  foes,  he  loaded  his  rifle  as  he  ran,  and 
killed  in  succession  the  three  foremost,  whereat  the 
other  fled.  In  all,  he  took  over  thirty  scalps  of  war 
riors,  thus  killing  more  Indians  than  were  slain  by 
either  one  of  the  two  large  armies  of  Braddock  and 
St.  Clair  during  their  disastrous  campaigns.  Wetzel's 
frame,  like  his  heart,  was  of  steel,  but  his  temper  was 
too  sullen  and  unruly  for  him  ever  to  submit  to  com 
mand  or  to  bear  rule  over  others.  His  feats  were 
performed  when  he  was  either  alone  or  with  two  or 
three  associates.  An  army  of  such  men  would  have 
been  wholly  valueless. 

His  father  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  on  Wheeling 
13 


146  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

Creek,  and  was  killed  in  1787  by  Indians,  sacrificing 
his  own  life  to  save  that  of  his  comrades.  From  that 
time  the  son,  then  almost  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
and  already  well  trained  by  his  father,  devoted  him 
self  to  avenging  his  death.  At  twenty-five  he  enlisted 
under  General  Harmer,  commanding  at  Marietta,  and 
while  in  the  army  he  shot  an  Indian,  was  arrested, 
escaped,  and  reached  home,  in  spite  of  prison,  guard, 
and  fetters.  An  attempt  to  recapture  him  was  given 
up  out  of  fear  of  a  counter-rebellion  against  the 
United  States  troops,  and  when  he  did  get  into  their 
hands,  General  Harmer  promptly  released  him.  He 
went  to  New  Orleans,  was  there  arrested,  and  was 
released  a  broken  man,  yet  he  was  long  active  in 
leading  new  settlers  and  purchasers  through  the 
trackless  forests  of  Western  Virginia,  until  his  death 
in  1808.  The  name  is  perpetuated  in  Wetzel  County, 
.West  Virginia,  although  the  early  German  name 
seems  to  have  passed  through  numerous  variations, — 
Whetzell,  Whitzell,  Watzel,  and  Wetzel,— but  of  its 
German  derivation  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The 
Poes,  too,  who  figure  in  this  border  history,  were 
sons  of  German  settlers  from  Frederick  County, 
Maryland,  and  the  elder  Frederick  Poe,  who  moved 
West  in  1774,  and  died  in  1840  at  the  age  of  ninety- 
three,  was,  like  his  younger  brother,  Andrew,  a  back 
woodsman  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  Shrewd, 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.  147 

active,  and  courageous,  they  fixed  their  abode  on 
the  frontier  of  civilization,  determined  to  contest 
inch  by  inch  with  the  native  Indians  their  right  to 
the  soil  and  their  privilege  to  live.  Their  hair-breadth 
escapes  and  bold  adventures  remain  even  now  among 
the  legends  of  their  early  homes,  and  fortunately  are 
preserved  in  the  pages  of  the  local  historian.  As 
late  as  1846  there  was  found  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Kanawha  one  of  the  leaden  plates,  suitably  inscribed, 
bearing  date  1749,  and  asserting  the  claim  of  France 
to  the  region  watered  by  the  Ohio  River  and  its 
tributaries,  and  others  were  found  at  Venango  and 
Marietta.  Washington's  expedition  with  the  Vir 
ginia  troops  in  1754  first  made  this  region  familiar 
to  the  colonists,  and  settlements  soon  began.  From 
Pennsylvania  came  some  of  the  German  Dunkards, 
who  hoped  to  practise  the  peaceful  doctrines  of  their 
Ephrata  brethren,  but  with  them  came  others  more 
willing  to  fight  than  to  pray,  preferring  to  take  land 
by  force  rather  than  by  purchase.  Braddock's  cam 
paign,  with  its  disaster,  only  served  to  make  the 
region  better  known  to  the  Provincial  troops,  and 
from  them  came  the  best  settlers  in  the  region  thus 
opened.  The  fate  of  the  Christian  and  Moravian 
Indians,  settled  at  Gnadenhiitten,  Schonbrunn,  Salem, 
and  Lichtenau,  massacred  in  cold  blood,  is  a  per 
manent  blot  upon  the  leaders  in  that  inexcusable 


148  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

raid,  and  it  was  terribly  revenged  in  the  utter  failure 
of  the  next  attack,  in  1782. 

General  George  Weedon,  really  Gerhard  von  der 
Wieden,  was  born  in  Hanover,  served  in  the  war  of 
the  Austrian  Succession,  1742-48,  was  distinguished 
for  his  performance  at  the  battle  of  Dettingen,  served 
with  Colonel  Henry  Bouquet  in  Flanders,  came  with 
him  as  lieutenant  in  his  Royal  American  Regiment, 
and  served  with  it  in  the  old  French  war,  in  the  cap 
ture  of  Fort  Du  Quesne,  and  in  the  campaign  against 
the  Indians.  The  war  over,  he  settled  in  Fredericks- 
burg,  Virginia,  then  largely  populated  by  Germans, 
and  when  the  Revolution  broke  out  became  captain 
and  later  on  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Third  Virginia 
Militia,  colonel  of  the  First  Virginia  Continental,  and 
finally,  orf  February  24,  1777,  brigadier-general, 
taking  a  leading  part  in  the  battles  of  Brandywine 
and  Germantown.  He  left  the  service  for  a  time,  then 
in  1780  re-entered  it  under  Muhlenberg,  and  com 
manded  the  Virginia  militia  at  the  siege  of  York- 
town. 

Armand's  legion  was  originally  organized  by 
Nicholas  Dietrich  Freiherr  von  OttendorfT,  a  Saxon 
nobleman,  lieutenant  under  Frederick  the  Great,  who 
came  to  this  country  with  Kosciuszko,  and  became 
major,  commanding  an  independent  corps  of  light 
infantry.  It  was  subsequently  reorganized  as  cavalry 


WARS    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  149 

under  Armand,  Ottendorff  became  lieutenant-colonel, 
and  his  adjutant,  Hovvelman,  a  Hanoverian  nobleman, 
together  with  the  officers  of  the  companies,  were  all 
advanced  in  grade, — the  names  are  given  in  full  in  the 
eighth  volume  of  the  Pionier  (1876-77),  p.  436. 

Of  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  who  were  soldiers 
in  the  Revolution  the  Hiesters  were  prominent  ex 
amples.  Four  sons  of  one  family  were  officers  : 
Daniel,  the  eldest,  colonel,  John  and  Gabriel,  ma 
jors,  and  William,  the  youngest,  captain ;  a  cousin, 
Joseph,  was  in  the  "  Flying  Camp,"  became  colonel, 
later  major-general  of  militia,  a  member  of  Congress, 
and  a  leader  of  his  party  in  Berks  County  down'  to 
his  death  in  1832,  in  his  eightieth  year.  John  and 
Daniel,  too,  became  major-generals  of  militia,  and 
they,  too,  were  also  sent  to  Congress,  one  from 
Pennsylvania  and  the  other  from  Maryland,  where 
he  made  his  home. 

The  knowledge  of  the  early  Germans,  and  their 
share  in  our  history,  will  no  longer  be  hidden  in  the 
records  of  scattered  local  periodicals.  In  the  series 
of  "  Geschichtsblatter,  Bilder  u.  Mittheilungen  aus 
dem  Leben  der  Deutschen  in  Amerika,  herausgege- 
ben  von  Carl  Schurz,"  published  in  New  York  by 
Steiger,  we  have  the  promise  of  a  valuable  contribu 
tion  to  our  slender  stock  of  available  information  as  to 
the  Germans  in  the  United  States.  The  first  volume 

13* 


150  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

of  this  series  is  a  reprint  of  Kapp's  "  Die  Deutschen 
im  Staate  New  York  wahrend  des  iSten  Jahrhun- 
derts,"  originally  published  in  Leipsic  and  New  York, 
in  1867.  At  p.  126  there  is  a  list  of  the  officers 
of  the  four  battalions  organized  in  Schoharie  Val 
ley  by  Germans,  in  1775,  to  take  part  in  the  war  of 
independence.  All  four  colonels  were  Germans, — 
viz.,  Nicholas  Herchheimer,  First  Battalion,  Canajo- 
harie ;  Jacob  Kloch,  Second  Battalion,  the  Pfalz ; 
Friedrich  Fischer,  Third  Battalion,  Mohawk;  Hanjost 
Herchheimer,  Fourth  Battalion,  German  Flats.  The 
Herchheimers  were  the  sons  of  an  early  German  set 
tler  in  Western  New  York,  who  had  won  distinction 
by  his  gallant  defence  against  Indian  attacks  in  the 
old  French  war.  General  Nicholas  Herchheimer,  who 
fell  in  battle  in  1777  in  defence  of  the  liberties  of  his 
country,  was  honored  with  the  praise  of  Washington, 
and  by  a  modest  monument  which  perpetuates  his 
services  and  sacrifice.  One  of  his  soldiers,  born  in 
Germany,  J.  A.  Hartmann,  survived  until  1836,  when 
he  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-two,  after  an  old  age  of 
poverty,  borne  with  fortitude,  and  his  name  is  now 
best  remembered  in  his  old  home,  where  he  lived  at 
the  public  expense,  as  an  example  of  the  tardy  grati 
tude  of  the  republic  he  too  had  aided  to  establish. 
Herchheimer  is  the  type  of  the  well-to-do  settlers 
of  German  descent,  Hartmann  of  the  poor  emigrant, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  I$l 

but  both  did  their  duty  manfully  in  the  struggle  for 
independence,  and  thus  set  an  example  freely  fol 
lowed  by  others,  Germans  both  by  birth  and  descent, 
who  fought  for  the  Union. 

Among  the  leading  German  soldiers  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  war  from  New  York  was  Hermann  von 
Zedwitz,  major  of  the  First  Regiment;  his  life  is 
sketched  by  Alfred  Schucking,  in  volume  iii.,  p.  185, 
of  the  Pionier.  The  command  of  the  regiment  was 
given  to  Colonel  Rudolph  Ritzema,  an  old  officer  in 
the  Royal  American  Regiment,  who  left  the  Conti 
nental  army  under  a  cloud,  returned  to  England,  and 
died  there  in  1803. 

The  journal  of  Colonel  Rudolphus  Ritzema,  of  the 
First  New  York  Regiment,  of  the  Canada  expedition, 
I775~7^>  ls  printed  in  The  Magazine  of  American 
History,  vol.  i.  p.  98 ;  a  note  says  he  was  the  son  of 
Dominic  Ritzema,  of  New  York ;  was  appointed 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  First  New  York  Regiment, 
June  30,  1775  ;  was  broken  by  court-martial  in  1778, 
and  joined  the  British.  In  the  same  magazine,  p.  162, 
is  a  biography  of  Ritzema,  by  the  Rev.  William  Hall, 
showing  that  he  was  of  Dutch  descent. 

In  1776,  Ritzema  became  colonel,  Major  Hermann 
Zedwitz  the  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  First,  and  Weis- 
senfels  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Third  New  York ; 
Weissenfels  led  the  regiment  in  the  battle  of  Long 


152  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Island,  and  in  1781  became  colonel  of  the  Fourth, 
remaining  in  service  until  1783. 

The  share  of  the  Germans  as  officers  and  soldiers 
on  the  patriot  side  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution  won 
them  the  confidence  and  gratitude  of  Washington.* 

The  oldest  and  largest  battalion  of  New  York 
City  in  the  Revolution  was  the  "  First  Independent 
Battalion,"  commanded  by  Colonel  John  Lasher,  a 
man  of  property  and  influence,  elected  colonel  during 
the  colonial  regime,  and  who,  with  most  of  his  officers 
and  men,  had  taken  up  the  Continental  cause.  Its 
companies,  bearing  separate  names  and  each  having 
some  distinguishing  feature  in  its  uniform,  included 
"  The  Prussian  Blues,"  Captain  James  Alner,  and  "  The 
German  Fusileers,"  Captain  William  Leonards.  As 
reorganized  in  the  summer  of  1776,  its  field-officers 
were  Colonel  John  Lasher,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Andrew 
Stockholm,  and  Major  James  Abeel.  Pennsylvania 
sent  to  the  Long  Island  campaign,  among  other  offi 
cers,  two  battalions  of  Berks  County  militia,  under 
Lieutenant-Colonels  Nicholas  Lutz  and  Peter  Koch- 
lein ;  their  colonel  was  Henry  Haller,  of  Reading. 

The   Hessians  or  "foreigners"   formed   more  than 

*  The  Hessians  under  Riedesel,  who  surrendered  with  Burgoyne, 
were  sent  to  Virginia,  where  they  lived  near  Jefferson,  who  thus 
learned  to  know  them,  gave  them  the  use  of  his  library,  and  enjoyed 
their  music. 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  153 

one-fourth  of  the  British  force  under  Howe. '  They 
numbered  eight  thousand  officers  and  men.  It  formed 
a  division  under  General  Von  Heister,  and  was  organ 
ized  into  Von  Mirbach's  brigade,  consisting  of  the 
regiments  of  Knyphausen,  Rahl,  and  Lossberg;  Von 
Stirn's  brigade,  the  Donop,  Mirbach,  and  Hereditary 
Prince's  regiments;  Von  Donop's  brigade,  of  the^ 
Grenadiers,  of  the  regiments  of  Block,  Minigerode, 
and  Lissingen,  and  the  Yagers ;  and  Lossberg's  bri 
gade,  of  Von  Ditfurth's  and  Von  Trumbach's  regiments. 

The  map  of  the  battle  of  Long  Island  was  prepared 
by  Bernard  Ratzer,  an  engineer  in  the  British  army, 
lieutenant  in  the  (Sixtieth)  Royal  American  Regiment 
of  Foot  in  1756.  In  1767-68  he  made  an  official 
survey  of  New  York  and  part  of  Long  Island,  of  un 
questionable  accuracy  in  its  details.  It  was  published 
in  October,  1776,  by  "Samuel  London,  late  printer 
and  bookseller  in  New  York,  but  now  in  Norwich." 

The  returns  of  the  losses  in  the  Pennsylvania  regi 
ments  in  the  unlucky  battle  of  Long  Island  are  found 
in  the  public  archives  of  Pennsylvania;  they  include 
such  names  as  Cornelius  Donel,  George  Dillman, 
Jacob  Engelhart,  Philip  Feese,  Nicholas  House,  Jona 
than  Hagar,  Jacob  Koppinger,  Adam  Kydle,  Conrad 
Meserly,  George  Miller,  Jr.,  Adam  Swayer,  Jacob 
Shifle,  Francis  Shitz,  Jacob  Shutt,  Jacob  Slottner,  of 
Captain  Farmer's  company;  Jacob  Helsley,  Charles 


154  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Spangler,  Charles  Stump,  John  Swartz,  George 
Wampler,  of  Captain  Albright's  company;  Isaac 
Gruber,  Henry  Bollabaker,  Henry  Grelsbalk,  Jacob 
Isenhart,  Adam  Kerchner,  George  Keibler,  Christo 
pher  Neighast,  Elias  Schwartz,  of  Captain  Shade's 
company;  Martin  Kersshler  and  Jacob  Speiss,  of 
Captain  Weitzell's  company;  Michael  Loy,  Jacob 
Marks,  Christian  Mintzer,  Peter  Wile,  of  Captain 
De  Huff's  company ;  Michael  Domiller,  Michael 
Stucker,  of  Captain  Nisie's  company;  Andrew  Hessher, 
Andrew  Reefer,  Thomas  Sybert,  Martin  Derr,  George 
Fry,  Lawrence  Gob,  Anthony  Frutches,  Peter  Froes, 
John  Harpel,  John  Dufford,  Mathias  Stidinger,  Peter 
Beyer,  Peter  Lohr,  Bernhard  Miller,  Richard  Over- 
feld,  Jacob  Weidknecht,  Peter  Kern,  Philip  Bush,  of 
Captain  John  Arndt's  company.  Among  the  offi 
cers  captured  were  Jacob  Crowle,  Joseph  Heister, 
Jacob  Mauser,  of  Lutz's  battalion  ;  Henry  Hogenbach 
and  Garret  Graff,- of  Kochlein's;  George  Wert,  Joseph 
Triesback,  Michael  App.* 

The  second  volume  of  Schurz's  series,  "  Bilder  aus 
der  Deutsch  Pennsylvanischen  Geschichte,"  is  from 
the  pen  of  Professor  Oswald  Seidensticker,  whose 
services  in  the  cause  of  our  local  German  history 


*  See  "The  Campaign  of  1776  around  New  York,"  by  H.  P.  John 
ston,  Long  Island  Historical  Society,  Brooklyn,  New  York,  1878. 


WARS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.  155 

have  received  general  acknowledgment  for  their 
thoroughness  and  accuracy.  He  describes  in  detail 
the  part  taken  by  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania  in 
both  the  Continental  army  under  Washington  and 
the  Provincial  or  State  militia,  and  gives  the  names 
of  the  officers  of  the  German  Battalion,  and  their 
share  in  the  war  of  independence.  In  the  Second, 
Third,  Fifth,  Sixth,  and  Eighth  Pennsylvania  Regi 
ments  were  many  Germans.  The  Second  was  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Philippe  de  Haas ;  the  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  Third  was  Rudolph  Bunner,  who  fell  at 
Monmouth,  in  1778;  and  Mentges  of  the  Fifth  and 
Becker  of  the  Sixth  were  also  Germans.  Many  of 
these  were  members  of  the  German  Society,  and 
Colonel  Farmer,  first  captain  of  a  company  of  sharp 
shooters,  and  later  commfssary-general,  was  four 
times  President  of  the  German  Society  after  the 
war. 

Reading  sent  three  Hiesters,  and  York  many  Ger 
mans,  in  the  regiments  that  served  in  the  Revolution. 
Pennsylvania  Germans  were  numerous  in  Armand's 
legion,  in  Schott's  dragoons,  and  in  Van  Heer's 
cavalry  brigade.  Quakers,  Mennonites,  Bunkers, 
and  Herrnhuters  sacrificed  their  religious  tenets 
and  associations  to  serve  their  country,  while  the 
Lutherans  and  others  who  had  no  conscientious 
scruples  against  bearing  arms  were  well  represented 


156  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  7 HE 

in  the  field.  Foremost  among  these  was  General 
Muhlenberg,  born  in  Montgomery  County  in  1746, 
the  son  of  the  oldest  clergyman  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  Pennsylvania,  who  destined  all  his  three 
sons  to  follow  him  in  the  church,  educated  at  Halle, 
settled  in  1772  in  Virginia,  as  pastor  of  a  German 
Lutheran  congregation  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley. 
He  there  became  a  friend  of  Patrick  Henry  and  Wash 
ington.  Earnestly  supporting  the  cause  of  Ameri 
can  independence,  he  became  colonel  of  the  Eighth 
Virginia,  with  Abraham  Bowman  and  Peter  Helfen- 
stein  as  his  field-officers.  In  January,  1776,  he 
preached  his  last  sermon,  urging  on  his  hearers  the 
duty  of  patriotic  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the 
country,  and  then,  throwing  aside  the  clerical  gown, 
showed  his  military  uniform,  and  instantly  over  three 
hundred  of  his  listeners  followed  his  example  and 
joined  his  regiment.  Congress  soon  made  him  a 
brigadier-general,  and  throughout  the  war  his  zeal, 
his  courage,  and  his  energy  were  appreciated  by  Wash 
ington  and  Lafayette,  and  the  other  leaders  of  the 
Revolution.  His  part  in  the  final  surrender  of  Corn- 
wallis  at  Yorktown  made  him  a  major-general,  and 
yet  so  modest  was  he  that  when  peace  returned  his 
old  parishioners  would  gladly  have  made  him  once 
more  their  pastor.  Seven  years  of  war  had,  how 
ever,  changed  the  current  of  his  thoughts,  and  set- 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  157 

tling  in  Philadelphia,  be  became  Vice-President  of  the 
State,  under  Franklin,  and,  owing  to  Franklin's  age 
and  infirmities,  was  practically  the  head  of  the  gov 
ernment.  In  1788  he  and  his  brother  worked  ener 
getically  to  secure  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  1789,  and  under  it  he  sat  in  the  First  Congress, 
as  well  as  in  the  Second  and  the  Sixth,  always  a  stout 
advocate  of  the  Democratic  party;  he  was  three 
times  President  of  the  German  Society.  His  de 
scendants,  and  those  of  his  venerable  father,  have 
served  the  state  and  the  church  in  many  ways,  and 
always  with  honor  to  their  German  blood.  His 
statue  stands  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  as  the 
representative  man  chosen  by  Pennsylvania  to  take 
a  place  among  the  heroes  gathered  there  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  His  name  and  his  fame  are  part 
of  the  inheritance  which  the  German  population  of 
Pennsylvania  transmits  to  future  generations  to  show 
how  thoroughly  the  German  element  has  done  its 
duty  alike  in  war  and  in  peace,  and  how  well  it 
deserves  to  have  its  record  preserved  and  published 
for  the  information  of  their  descendants  and  of  the 
country. 

Many  of  the  early  settlers  of  Kentucky  were  Ger 
mans  from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  they 
held  the  frontier  outposts  against  the  incursions  of 
hostile  Indians.  Many  old  Revolutionary  soldiers 

14 


158  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

there  found  homes,  and  their  sons  were  active  in  the 
war  of  1812.  Frankfort,  the  capital  of  the  State, 
owes  its  name  to  its  German  founders,  for  the  most 
part  emigrants  from  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  and  "its 
vicinity,  who  came  hither  in  1786-87.  The  first  phy 
sician  was  Dr.  Louis  Marschall,  father  of  Humphrey 
Marshall,  noted  in  both  the  civil  and  military  his 
tory  of  Kentucky.  Thus  many  of  the  German  names 
were  anglicized,  some — e.g.,  Jager  translated  into 
Hunter — completely  disguised,  yet  the  industry  of 
local  historians  has  shown  that  a  very  large  part 
of  the  early  settlement  of  Kentucky  was  made  by 
Germans. 

The  gigantic  system  of  river  commerce  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  was  begun  in  1782  by  one  Jacob  Yoder,  who 
loaded  a  flat-boat  at  the  old  Redstone  Fort,  on  the 
Monongahela,  and  drifted  down  to  New  Orleans, 
where  he  sold  his  goods  and  returned  to  the  Falls  of 
the  Ohio  by  a  roundabout  course  leading  through 
Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg. 

Hambright,  a  Pennsylvania  German,  was  a  militia 
colonel  at  King's  Mountain,  October  29,  1781,  was 
wounded,  but  kept  on  through  the  battle,  and  helped 
to  win  the  victory  of  far-reaching  importance  among 
the  decisive  battles  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  for  its 
immediate  effect  was  to  cause  Cornwallis  to  retreat 
from  North  Carolina. 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  159 

Among  the  soldiers  of  German  descent  a  marked 
and  exceptional  case  is  that  of  General  John  A. 
Quitman.  He  was  the  son  of  the  pastor  'of  the 
German  Lutheran  Church  of  Schoharie,  who  was 
himself  born  in  Iserlohn,  Germany,  and  came  to  this 
country  in  1795.  The  father  was  a  strong,  deter-, 
mined  man,  with  a  high  notion  of  his  own  impor 
tance,  who  showed  a  will  of  his  own  not  unlike  that 
of  the  son.  The  elder  Quitman  left  Schoharie  to 
become  pastor  of  the  church  in  Rhinebeck,  where 
he  died  in  1832.  His  son  was  born  there  in  1/98, 
and  educated  by  his  father's  successor.  As  a  young 
man  he  went  South,  became  a  distinguished  lawyer 
and  member  of  Congress  from  his  new  home  in 
Natchez,  Mississippi,  took  a  leading  place  among 
the  general  officers  of  volunteers  in  the  Mexican 
war,  was  prominent  in  urging  on  the  people  of 
the  South  the  extreme  doctrines  of  States'  rights, 
rejoicing  in  the  name  of  fire-eater,  and  was  generally 
looked  on  as  the  intellectual  leader  of  the  agitation 
which  finally  ended  in  the  Rebellion  of  1861.  His 
death,  in  1858,  saved  him  from  sharing  in  the  devasta 
tion  his  theories  had  brought  over  the  section  which 
accepted  him  as  their  representative. 

In  the  Revolution  there  were  adherents  of  Whigs 
and  Tories  even  in  the  same  family,  and  this  was 
as  true  of  the  Germans  as  of  the  other  nationalities 


l6o  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

settled  in  the  colonies;  but  in  the  Rebellion  the  mi 
nority  in  either  of  the  two  great  sections  into  which 
the  country  was  divided  had  little  power  or  influence 
to  stem  the  tide  that  finally  led  to  the  success  of 
the  Union.  Still,  the  Germans  were  found  on  both 
.sides,  for  the  self-reliant,  independent  character  of 
the  German  leads  him  to  choose  his  own  course, 
and  to  adhere  to  it  in  spite  of  popular  opposition. 
In  Arkansas,  Klingelhoffer,  son  of  the  founder  of  a 
German  colony  at  Little  Rock,  became  an  officer 
of  the  Confederate  army. 

The  registers  and  rolls  of  the  regular  army  of  the 
United  States  bear  the  names  of  many  distinguished 
soldiers  of  German  birth  and  descent,  and  not  a  few 
of  them  brought  to  the  service  of  their  new  father 
land  the  training  and  experience  acquired  in  their 
native  country.  In  the  exhaustive  dictionaries  of 
the  army  by  Gardiner  and  Henry  and  Hamersly, 
and  in  the  invaluable  pages  of  General  George  W. 
Cullum's  "  Record  of  the  Graduates  of  West  Point," 
are  found  many  examples  of  the  German  soldier  in 
the  army  of  the  United  States.  One  example  deserves 
special  mention. 

John  Baptiste  de  Barth,  Baron  de  Walbach,  brig 
adier-general  and  colonel  commanding  Fourth  Ar 
tillery,  U.S.A.,  was  the  third  son  of  Count  Joseph 
de  Barth  and  Marie  Therese  de  Rohmer.  He  was 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  l6l 

born  in  Munster,  Valley  of  St.  Gregory,  Upper 
Rhine,  Germany,  on  the  3d  day  of  October,  1766, 
and  was  -educated  at  the  military  school  at  Stras 
bourg.  In  December,  1782,  he  entered  as  a  cadet 
the  company  commanded  by  Baron  de  Wald,  Regi 
ment  of  Royal  Alsace,  Prince  Maximilian  of  Deux- 
Ponts  colonel  and  proprietor,  in  the  service  of  the 
King  of  France.  He  was  promoted  and  served  in 
the  same  regiment  as  ensign  until  October,  1783, 
and  then  until  November  as  gentleman  volunteer  in 
the  hussars,  General  Baron  de  Kellermann  command 
ing.  From  January,  1784,  he  served  in  the  regiment 
of  Luzern  Hussars,  when  he  received  the  appoint 
ment  of  sub-lieutenant  (cornet),  and  continued  to 
serve  in  the  successive  grades,  second  lieutenant,  first 
lieutenant,  until  May,  1792.  Declining  the  commis 
sion  of  captain,  he  left  France  to  join  the  armies  of 
the  Prince,  brother  of  King  Louis  XVI.  He  served 
in  this  army  as  gentleman  volunteer,  on  horseback, 
at  his  own  expense,  under  Colonel  Count  de  Pes- 
talozzi,  his  former  colonel  of  the  Luzern  Hussars. 
With  this  corps  he  made  the  campaign  in  Cham 
pagne,  in  1792,  in  the  advance  of  the  Prussian  army, 
until  it  was  disbanded  at  Maestricht.  He  then  left 
Liege,  passed  through  the  French  lines  to  Treves, 
and  brought  back  his  sister,  Mme.  Blondeau,  and 
placed  her,  with  their  three  children,  under  the  care 

14* 


1 62  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

of  her  husband,  lieutenant-colonel,  formerly  major, 
of  artillery,  who  had  served  in  the  army  of  Rocham- 
beau  in  America.  He  then  went  to  Germany,  took 
part  in  the  attack  on  Frankfort,  January  6,  1793,  and 
later  joined  the  Sixty-second  Company,  First  Battalion 
of  the  Austrian  Chasseurs  of  Conde,  serving  during 
the  campaign  of  1793,  in  attacks  on  the  French  lines 
at  Germersheim,  Yorkheim,  Langenkandel,  and  Wis- 
sembourg,  where  the  Austrians  captured  one  hundred 
and  fifty-five  pieces  of  cannon;  the  losses  in  both 
armies  being  estimated  at  twenty-two  thousand  men. 
He  then  accepted  a  captaincy  from  the  Prince  de 
Rohan,  and  covered  the  retreat  of  the  unfortunate 
army  of  the  Duke  of  York  northward  to  Holland 
and  Germany.  Finally,  he  embarked  with  his  regi 
ment,  the  Hussars  of  Rohan,  for  the  British  West 
Indies,  on  the  promise  of  the  British  government 
that  they  should  always  serve  on  horseback,  and  that 
at  the  end  of  four  years  they  were  to  be  returned  to 
their  homes.  In  1798,  being  then  the  third  officer  of 
the  regiment,  which  had  been  reduced  by  yellow 
fever  from  twelve  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  thirty, 
he  obtained  leave  for  six  months  to  visit  his  father, 
who  had  come  to  America  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
French  Revolution.  With  twenty-four  other  noble 
men,  Count  de  Barth  had  agreed  to  buy  forty  thousand 
acres  of  land  on  the  Scioto  River,  Ohio,  paying  half 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  163 

the  purchase-money  to  Joel  Barlow  and  William 
Playfair,  agents  in  Paris  of  Colonel  William  Duer, 
accredited 'by  a  letter  from  Thomas  Jefferson.  Count 
de  Barth  sailed  with  three  hundred  emigrants,  landed 
in  Alexandria,  Virginia,  in  March,  1/90,  and  then 
proceeded  to  Marietta,  Ohio,  where  he  found  that 
Duer  had  become  a  bankrupt.  He  returned  to  Philadel 
phia  and  purchased  a  country-seat, — Springettsbury 
Manor,  Bush  Hill,  a  mansion  with  sixty  acres, — but  he 
died  there  September  24,  1793,  and  was  buried  in 
St.  Mary's  Roman  Catholic  Church,  in  Philadelphia. 
Bush  Hill  was  occupied  as  a  hospital  during  the 
yellow  fever,  and  as  there  was  no  one  authorized  to 
make  the  last  payment,  it  was  sold  by  the  sheriff  and 
passed  from  the  family.  In  1798,  Colonel,  then  Major, 
Walbach,  his  son,  on  his  arrival,  retained  Messrs. 
William  Rawle,  Jared  Ingersoll,  and  James  Heatly, 
but  owing  to  the  loss  of  documents  could  obtain  no 
redress.  Major  Walbach  then  resigned  his  com 
mission  as  major  in  the  Hussars  of  Rohan,  and 
became  an  adopted  citizen  of .  the  United  States. 
In  the  autumn  of  1798  he  entered  the  army  of  the 
United  States  on  the  appointment  of  Washington, 
Hamilton,  and  McHenry,  as  second  lieutenant  of 
cavalry,  and  was  appointed  adjutant  of  a  cavalry 
regiment,  holding  that  post  until  the  corps  was 
disbanded  in  June,  1799.  He  was  then  employed 


164  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

in  the  office  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  the  United 
States,  General  William  North,  who  had  been  aide 
to  General  Steuben.  In  December,  1799,  he  was 
employed  to  assist  General  Charles  C.  Pinckney  in 
preparing  regulations  for  the  cavalry,  and  later  to 
assist  General  Hamilton  in  preparing  regulations 
for  the  artillery,  and  afterwards  he  was  ordered  to 
report  to  General  Washington,  to  take  charge  of 
a  detachment  of  dragoons.  He  was  appointed,  in 
1 80 1,  first  lieutenant  in  the  First  Regiment  of  Ar 
tillery  and  Engineers,  and  in  1802  aide  to  General 
Wilkinson;  in  1804,  adjutant  of  artillery  and  mili 
tary  agent  at  Fort  Constitution,  New  Hampshire ;  in 
1806,  captain  of  artillery;  in  1812,  assistant  deputy 
quartermaster;  in  1813,  assistant  adjutant-general 
with  the  rank  of  major,  and  assistant  adjutant- 
general  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  brevet  major, 
for  gallant  conduct  at  the  battle  of  Chrysler's  Fields  ; 
in  1815,  major  of  artillery  and  brevet  lieutenant- 
colonel;  in  1830,  brevet  colonel  for  ten  years'  further 
service,  and  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  First  Regiment 
of  Artillery;  in  1842,  colonel  of  the  Fourth  Regi 
ment  of  Artillery,  and  made  commander  at  Fortress 
Monroe  and  brevet  brigadier-general;  and  in  1851 
he  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  the  East.  He  died  in  Baltimore,  Maryland, 
on  the  loth  of  June,  1857,  of  disease  contracted  in 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  165 

the  war  of  1812.  A  highly-commendatory  order  was 
issued  by  General  Scott,  lieutenant-general  com 
manding  at  the  time  of  his  death,  reciting  his  long 
military  career,  his  distinguished  services,  and  his 
unwavering  integrity,  truth,  and  honor,  strict  atten 
tion  to  duty,  and  zeal  for  the  service,  tempering 
the  administration  of  an  exact  discipline  by  the 
most  elevated  courtesies.  General  George  W.  Cul- 
lum,  in  his  "  Campaigns  and  Engineers  of  the  War 
of  1812-15,"  at  P-  J68,  credits  him  with  saving  the 
artillery  at  Chrysler's  Fields  in  1813.  His  grand 
son,  John  de  Earth  Walbach  Gardiner,  is  an  assist 
ant  surgeon  in  the  United  States  army.  His  son, 
L.  de  B.  Walbach,  who  died  in  1853,  was  a  graduate 
of  West  Point  and  a  captain  of  ordnance.  Another 
son  died  an  officer  of  the  United  States  navy. 

General  Walbach  is  well  remembered  by  old  offi 
cers  of  the  regular  army  as  a  fine  soldierly  character, 
full  of  zeal  and  pride  in  his  profession,  and  a  man  of 
many  manly  virtues  and  attractive  qualities.  His 
brother  was  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  in  Baltimore,  and 
in  their  old  age  these  two  men,  living  together,  were 
typical  examples  of  the  professions  of  war  and  peace. 

Among  the  early  graduates  of  West  Point,  a  nota 
ble  example  of  the  way  in  which  Germany  has  sup 
plied  our  army  with  officers  is  the  case  of  Julius  F. 
Heileman,  son  of  the  surgeon  of  Riedesel's  German 


1 66  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

brigade  in  Burgoyne's  army ;  he  was  appointed  a  cadet 
in  1803,  and  rose  to  be  major  of  the  Second  Artillery, 
when  he  fell  in  Florida,  in  1836. 

Colonel  George  Nauman  was  a  graduate  of  West 
Point  in  1823,  who  rose  by  slow  but  good  service,  and 
died  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  First  Artillery,  in 
Philadelphia,  in  1863.  He  was  born  in  Pennsylvania 
sixty  years  before. 

General  Jacob  Ammen,  who  was  distinguished 
during  the  Rebellion,  was  a  native  of  Virginia,  a 
graduate  of  West  Point  in  1831,  had  resigned  to 
engage  in  teaching  and  engineering,  and,  when  the 
war  broke  out,  re-entered  the  service  as  colonel  of 
the  Twenty-fourth  Ohio;  as  a  brigadier-general,  he 
served  with  great  bravery  in  the  West. 

General  Edmund  Schriver  and  General  Alexander 
Shiras  were  graduates  of  1833,  and  both  were  born  in 
Pennsylvania.  Their  services  in  the  Rebellion  were 
highly  appreciated. 

General  Herman  Haupt,  a  graduate  of  1835,  was 
born  in  Philadelphia,  and,  besides  his  services  in  the 
field,  has  been  a  pioneer  in  the  great  business  of 
railroad  building  across  the  continent.  His  son 
graduated  in  1867. 

Luther  and  Roland  and  Hagner,  all  of  the  class  of 
1836,  bore  good  Pennsylvania  German  names. 

The  Muhlenbergs  have  had  a  representative,  and 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  1 67 

often  more  than  one,  in  the  regular  army  since  the 
time  of  the  early  Pennsylvania  soldier  down  to  our 
own  day,  and  all  have  done  honor  to  a  name  that  is 
looked  on  as  one  fittingly  chosen  as  the  type  of  the 
Pennsylvania  soldier  and  statesman.  The  Muhlen- 
bergs,  six  at  least,  fill  an  honored  place  on  the  regis 
ters  of  the  regular  army,  in  which  they  have  a  right 
by  descent  from  patriot  ancestors  of  the  Revolution. 

General  S.  P.  Heintzelman,  a  veteran  of  the  regular 
army,  was  born  in  Lancaster  County  in  1805.  His 
grandfather,  a  native  of  Augsburg,  was  the  first  white 
settler  in  Manheim,  where  his  grandson  was  educated 
until  he  went  to  West  Point  in  1 8  26.  He  was  promoted 
and  brevetted  for  his  gallantry  in  the  Mexican  war, 
and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  becanfe  colonel  of 
the  Seventeenth  United  States  Infantry.  At  Bull  Run 
he  was  wounded;  on  the  Peninsula  he  commanded  a 
corps,  and  throughout  the  war  he  was  always  on  duty. 

Francis  Lieber  was  born  in  Berlin  in  1800;  he 
grew  up  in  the  midst  of  the  earnest  aspirations  of 
Germany  for  freedom  from  the  French  yoke,  and  at 
the  age  of  fifteen,  following  the  example  of  his  elder 
brothers,  and  with  the  approval  of  his  parents,  en 
listed  in  the  Colberg  Regiment  under  Bliicher.*  He 

*  The  battle  of  Leipsic,  the  turning-point  of  the  uprising  of  Ger 
many  against  Napoleon,  was  celebrated  in  Philadelphia  by  German 


1 68  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

began  his  short  experience  of  war  at  Ligny,  was 
wounded,  and  returned  after  the  campaign  of  Water 
loo  to  resume  his  work  as  a  school-boy.  With  the 
other  young  Turners,  he  followed  Jahn  in  his  plan  for 
political  as  well  as  physical  regeneration,  and  with 
his  leader  he  was  imprisoned  for  excess  of  patriotism. 
His  four  months'  confinement  was  not  in  itself  a 
great  hardship,  but  it  carried  with  it  a  prohibition  to 
study  in  any  Prussian  university,  and  this  implied  his 
exclusion  from  public  employment.  He  studied  at 
Jena,  Halle,  and  Dresden,  and  then  at  twenty-one 
took  part  in  the  Greek  struggle,  with  very  unsatis 
factory  results. 

Then,  encouraged  by  Niebuhr,  in  whose  family  he 
had  been  etnployed  in  Rome,  he  returned  to  Berlin, 
only  to  be  again  imprisoned, — an  enforced  idleness 
which  he  used  in  the  composition  of  a  volume  of 
poems  of  the  merriest  kind.  After  trying  in  vain  to 
secure  a  stable  position,  he  freed  himself  from  the  un 
comfortable  results  of  his  early  patriotism  by  coming 
to  America,  where  he  arrived  in  1827.  He  estab 
lished  a  swimming-school  in  Boston  after  the  model 
of  those  of  Germany,  but  soon  undertook  a  very 
great  work, — the  preparation  of  the  "  Encyclopaedia 

citizens,  with  toasts  in  honor  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  the  burning 
of  Moscow,  Blucher,  the  German  princes,  and  the  patriots  of  South 
America. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  169 

Americana,"  based  on  Brockhaus's  "  Conversations 
Lexicon,"  published  in  Philadelphia,  which  then  be 
came  the  scene  of  his  active  literary  labors.  He  pre 
pared  an  elaborate  scheme  for  the  management  of 
Girard  College,  and  began  his  independent  author 
ship.  He  went  to  the  University  of  South  Carolina, 
in  1835,  as  Professor  of  History  and  Political  Econ 
omy,  where  he  wrote  and  taught  until  1857,  when  he 
gladly  left  the  South. 

When  the  Rebellion  broke  out  he  was  quietly 
settled  at  Columbia  College  in  New  York,  but  one 
of  his  sons  went  into  the  Confederate  service,  another 
with  the  Illinois  troops  into  the  Union  army,  and  a 
third  got  a  commission  in  the  regular  army,  and  he 
himself  began  his  work  as  legal  adviser  to  the  govern 
ment  on  questions  of  military  and  international  law 
by  preparing  a  code  of  instructions  for  the  govern 
ment  of  armies  of  the  United  States  in  the  field,  and 
from  that  time  on  he  was  in  constant  employment  in 
that  direction,  putting  his  vast  store  of  learning  at 
the  disposition  of  the  authorities  on  every  fitting  oc 
casion.  He  maintained  a  close  correspondence  with  the 
leading  German  professors  Bluntschli,  Mohl,and  Holt- 
zendorfif,  and  did  much  to  secure  in  Germany  a  proper 
appreciation  of  the  great  work  done  for  the  world  by 
securing  the  perpetuation  of  the  American  Union, 
and  later  on  to  make  America  alive  to  the  merits  of 

'5 


I/O  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

the  great  struggle  with  France  which  secured  German 
unity.  His  busy  life  ended  in  1872,  and  his  best 
epitaph  was  his  own  favorite  motto,  "  Patria  Cara, 
Carior  Libertas,  Veritas  Carissima,"  for  Country, 
Liberty,  and  Truth  were  the  great  aims  in  all  he 
wrote  and  spoke  and  thought.  His  services  were  of  a 
kind  not  often  within  the  reach  and  range  of  a  single 
life,  and  his  memory  deserves  to  be  honored  and  kept 
green  in  both  his  native  and  his  adopted  country. 
He  was  well  represented  in  the  Union  cause  by  his 
two  sons,  Hamilton,  who  served  in  the  Ninety-second 
Illinois,  and  died  in  1876,  an  officer  of  the  regular 
army,  and  Guido,  still  in  the  regular  service,  through 
whom  his  name  is  perpetuated  in  the  army  register. 

The  death  of  another  son  on  the  Confederate  side 
was  another  sacrifice  to  the  cause  of  the  Union. 

His  "  Instructions  for  Armies  in  the  Field,"  General 
Order  No.  100,  published  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  April  24,  1863,  was  the  first  codifica 
tion  of  international  articles  of  war,  and  marked  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  international  law  and  of  civili 
zation.  His  other  contributions  to  military  and  to 
international  law,  published  at  various  times  during 
the  civil  war,  together  with  his  other  miscellaneous 
writings  on  political  science,  have  been  reprinted  in 
the  two  volumes  of  his  works  issued  by  J.  B.  Lippin- 
cott  &  Co.,  in  1881,  and  these,  with  his  memoirs  and 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  I? I 

the  tributes  paid  him  by  President  Oilman  and  Judge 
Thayer,  are  his  best  monument.  A  memoir  by  T.  S. 
Perry  well  deserves  attention,  and  the  German  trans 
lation,  edited  by  Holtzendorff,  shows  Lieber's  popu 
larity  in  Germany. 

General  August  V.  Kautz  was  born  in  Baden  in 
1828,  and  came  as  a  lad  to  this  country,  where  his 
family  settled  in  Ohio.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
Mexican  war  he  enlisted  in  the  First  Ohio  Regiment 
and  was  rewarded  for  his  services  by  being  appointed 
a  lieutenant  in  the  regular  army.  He  was  captain  of 
cavalry  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion,  commanded 
his  regiment,  the  Sixth  Cavalry,  under  McClellan,  in 
the  operations  before  Richmond,  was  appointed  colonel 
of  the  Second  Ohio  Cavalry  and  chief  of  cavalry  of 
the  Twenty-third  Corps,  and  brevetted  major-general 
in  both  the  volunteer  and  regular  service.  He  became 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Fifteenth  Infantry  after  the 
war,  is  now  colonel  of  the  Eighth  Infantry,  and  is  the 
author  of  some  excellent  works  on  various  subjects  of 
military  science. 

Brevet  Lieutenant-Colonel  Alfred  Mordecai,  of  the 
Ordnance  Department  of  the  United  States  army,  is  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  of  the  class  of  June,  1861, 
and  is  now  major  of  his  corps.  His  scientific  services 
have  been  recognized  both  in  and  out  of  the  army. 
He  is  the  son  of  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  regular 


THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

army,  Major  A.  Mordecai,  of  the  class  of  1823,  whose 
military  record  was  a  very  brilliant  one;  his  name  is 
familiar  as  the  author,  with  General  McClellan  and 
General  Delafield,  of  an  admirable  report  of  their 
visit  to  Europe  and  to  the  Crimea  during  the  Russian 
war  of  1854.  His  grandfather  was  a  German.  Father 
and  son  have  both  contributed  to  the  science  of  their 
branch  of  the  military  profession,  ordnance;  and  the 
elder  Major  Mordecai  gave  the  first  impulse  to  Pro 
fessor  Henry's  application  of  electricity  to  ballistics, — 
the  art  of  measuring  the  velocity  of  projectiles,  now 
become  a  matter  of  every-day  use  in  all  arsenals 
throughout  the  world. 

General  George  A.  Custer,  one  of  the  most  pictu 
resque  characters  of  the  war  and  an  exceptional 
soldier  in  his  Indian  campaigns,  was  the  great- 
grandson  of  an  officer  of  the  Hessian  soldiers  sent 
here  to  serve  in  the  British  army  during  the  Revo 
lution.  His  ancestor,  paroled  in  1778,  after  Bur- 
goyne's  surrender,  settled  in  Pennsylvania,  married 
there,  changed  his  German  name,  "  Kiister,"  to  one 
easier  to  pronounce  in  English,  and  moved  to  Mary 
land,  where  the  father  of  General  Custer  was  born 
in  1806.  His  famous  son  was  born  in  Ohio,  in 
1839,  as  a  boy  taught  school  in  his  native  village, 
Hopedale,  until  1857,  when  he  was  appointed  a  cadet 
at  West  Point.  Graduating  there  in  June,  1861, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  173 

he  was  assigned  to  the  Second  Cavalry,  served  with 
distinction,  was  made  a  captain  on  the  staff  of  Gen 
eral  McClellan,  served  with  General  Kearny  and 
General  Pleasonton,  was  appointed  a  brigadier-gen 
eral  for  his  gallantry  at  the  battle  of  Aldie,  and 
commanded,  successively,  a  brigade  and  a  division 
of  cavalry,  which  he  led  with  distinguished  bravery. 
He  was  promoted  to  be  a  major-general  of  volun 
teers,  a  brevet  major-general  of  the  United  States 
army,  and  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Seventh  Cav 
alry,  served  under  General  Hancock  in  a  series  of 
campaigns  against  the  Indians,  and  finally  fell  in 
battle  with  the  Sioux.  He  was  the  author  of  many 
capital  contributions  to  the  periodical  literature  after 
the  civil  war,  and  his  memory  is  preserved  in  his 
wife's  charming  little  book,  "  Military  Life  on  the 
Frontiers,""  and  in  the  "  Life  of  General  Custer,"  by 
F.  Whittaker,  published  shortly  after  his  heroic  death 
in  June,  1876. 

Lieutenant  John  T.  Greble,  of  the  Second  Ar 
tillery,  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  of  the  class  of 
1854,  is  well  remembered  as  the  first  officer  of  the 
regular  army  to  fall  in  the  war  of  the  Rebellion. 
Born  in  Philadelphia  in  1834,  he  was  killed  in  ac 
tion,  at  Big  Bethel,  Virginia,  on  the  loth  of  June, 
1 86 1.  He  was  one  of  the  most  popular  officers  in 
the  service,  distinguished  alike  for  gallantry  and 

15* 


174  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

attainments.  He,  too,  was  of  German  descent,  and 
the  traditions  of  the  family  were  all  patriotic.  His 
'great-grandfather,  Andrew  Greble,  a  native  of  Saxe- 
Gotha,  came  to  this  country  in  1742,  settled  per 
manently  in  Philadelphia,  and  enlisted  warmly  in 
the  cause  of  the  war  of  independence.  He  and  his 
four  sons  joined  the  American  army,  and  fought  at 
the  battles  of  Princeton  and  Monmouth.  Two  of 
his  ancestors  on  his  mother's  side,  good  Welsh 
Quakers,  were  in  the  Continental  army.  A  gradu 
ate  of  the  Philadelphia  High  School,  he  showed  at 
West  Point  and  in  the  army  a  love  of  study  which, 
with  his  amiable  manners  and  soldierly  conduct, 
secured  him  the  friendship  of  all  with  whom  he 
was  brought  in  contact.  After  serving  in  Florida, 
he  was  appointed  to  the  corps  of  instructors  at  West 
Point,  and  was  on  duty  at  Fortress  Monroe  when 
the  civil  war  broke  out.  His  untimely  death  was 
due  to  his  deliberate  purpose  to  sacrifice  his  life  to 
save  the  lives  of  the  large  body  of  soldiers  imper 
illed  by  an  overwhelming  force.  His  heroism  had 
its  reward  in  the  gratitude  with  which  his  memory 
is  cherished  both  in  the  army  and  by  the  people. 
His  son,  Lieutenant  Edwin  St.  John  Greble,  a  grad 
uate  of  the  class  of  1881,  is  now  serving  with  the 
Second  United  States  Artillery. 

William  Heine  was  born  in  1827,  and  died  in  Dres- 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  175 

den,  his  native  city,  in  October,  1885.  He  learned 
landscape  and  architectural  painting  in  Paris,  and 
was  employed  as  a  painter  at  the  Dresden  Court 
Theatre,  but,  after  the  revolution  of  1848  in  Sax 
ony,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1851;  he  trav 
elled  in  Central  America,  which  he  described  in 
"  Wanderbilder  aus  Centralamerika,"  Leipzig,  1853. 
He  subsequently  joined  Perry's  expedition  to  Japan, 
and,  in  1860,  the  Prussian  expedition  to  the  same 
country,  describing  it  in  his  "Japan,  Beitrage  zur 
Kentniss  des  Landes  u.s.  Bewohner,"  Dresden,  1870. 
After  the  outbreak  of  the  American  civil  war,  he 
entered  the  Union  army  as  captain  of  engineers  ; 
advanced  to  the  rank  of  brigadier,  March,  1865  ; 
was  afterwards  employed  in  the  United  States  con 
sular  service,  and  returned  to  his  native  land  in 
1871. 

General  Godfrey  Weitzel  was  born  in  Germany  in 
1835,  and  came  with  his  parents  to  this  country  as  a 
child,  was  appointed  a  cadet  at  West  Point  in  his 
seventeenth  year,  and  in  1855  graduated  as  a  lieu 
tenant  of  engineers.  He  served  with  Butler  and 
Banks  in  the  South,  and  led  a  division  under  Grant 
in  the  final  conquest  of  Richmond.  After  the 
war  he  was  constantly  employed  in  his  profession, 
until  his  untimely  death  in  Philadelphia,  March  19, 
1884. 


1 76  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Colonel  Alexander  von  Schrader,  born  in  Ger 
many,,  a  soldier  by  training,  was  lieutenant-colonel 
of  the  Seventy-fourth  Ohio,  and  became  a  major  in 
the  Thirty-ninth  Infantry  of  the  regular  army,  dying 
in  service  August  6,  1867.  He  had  been  reduced 
to  the  direst  poverty  before  the  war,  but  when  the 
occasion  came  his  distinguished  gallantry  and  efficient 
military  training  stood  him  in  good  stead. 

Henry  A.  Hambright,  retired  as  major  Nine 
teenth  United  States  Infantry,  brevet  colonel  United 
States  army,  brevet  brigadier-general  United  States 
volunteers,  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 
March  24,  1819.  His  father,  Frederick,  a  major- 
general  of  militia,  and  his  uncle,  George,  a  colonel, 
both  served  in  the  war  of  1812.  Colonel  Ham- 
bright  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  in  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion  as  an  officer  of  the  Second  Pennsylvania 
Volunteers,  in  the  First  Pennsylvania  (three  months) 
Volunteers,  and  as  colonel  of  the  Seventy-ninth 
Pennsylvania;  while  still  in  the  three  months'  service 
he  was  commissioned  captain  of  the  Eleventh  United 
States  Infantry,  and  served  with  distinguished  gal 
lantry  through  the  war,  and  with  great  fidelity  until 
he  was  retired  for  disability  incurred  in  the  line  of 
duty. 

A  study  of  the  register  of  officers  of  the  regular 
army  from  1779  shows  a  large  proportion  of  Ger- 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  177 

mans, — beginning  with  De  Kalb  and  Steuben,  in  the 
German  Battalion  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, 
the  artillery  and  engineer  and  other  staff  corps  en 
gaged  in  the  wars  of  1812  and  1846.  During  the 
Rebellion  many  old  soldiers  of  German  birth  were  re 
warded  by  commissions,  and  not  a  few  distinguished 
German  volunteers  were  also  appointed  in  the  reg 
ular  army, — among  them  Blucher,  Von  Hermann, 
Luettwitz,  Michalowski,  and  Von  Schirach. 

The  Germans  served  in  large  numbers  in  cavalry 
and  artillery  companies  of  volunteers  in  the  Mexican 
war,  notably  from  Texas  and  Missouri,  and  many  of 
them  gained  distinction  in  this  service.  Kentucky 
had  its  infantry  regiment  and  its  cavalry  company  of 
Germans  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  many  Germans  in 
its  loyal  regiments  during  the  Rebellion,  notably 
Companies  E  and  G  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry,  and 
Earth's  company  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Kentucky 
Volunteers.  Among  the  Germans  whose  services  in 
Texas  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  is  the  once  familiar 
name  of  William  Langenheim ;  and  of  his  associates, 
Gustavus  Schleicher,  in  Texas,  and  J.  A.  Wagener, 
in  South  Carolina,  served  in  the  Confederate  army. 
New  Orleans  and  Louisiana  had  among  their  leading 
Union  men  two  representative  Germans, — Christian 
Roselius  and  Michael  Hahn. 

There  were  two  million  six  hundred  and  ninety 


THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

thousand  men  engaged  in  the  army  and  navy  during 
the  Rebellion,  besides  seventy-two  thousand  emer 
gency  men  called 'out  for  short  periods  of  service. 
The  Count  of  Paris,  in  his  exhaustive  history  of  the 
war,  says  that  of  the  volunteers  who  enlisted  during 
the  first  year  only  one-tenth  were  foreigners ;  of  the 
remainder,  two-thirds  were  born  on  American  soil 
and  less  than  one-fourth  were  naturalized  Europeans. 
In  1864,  when  conscription  was  partially  resorted  to, 
eighty  per  cent,  were  natives.  This  army,  more  than 
two-thirds  natives  and  less  than  one-third  foreigners, 
was  raised  out  of  a  population  of  nineteen  millions. 
Far  more  than  one-third  of  the  effective  male  popu 
lation  were  of  European  birth,  yet  in  the  army  there 
was  far  less  than  that  proportion  in  the  ranks. 

The  Confederacy  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run  had  about  two  hundred  thousand  men  under 
arms.  When  the  North  called  for  five  hundred 
thousand  men,  the  South  called  for  four  hundred 
thousand.  In  1862  the  South  had  about  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty  thousand  men  in  the  field;  in  April 
of  that  year  the  Confederate  Congress  ordered,  not 
a  draft  as  in  the  past,  but  a  levy  en  masse  of  all 
white  males  between  eighteen  and  thirty-five,  resid 
ing  within  the  Confederacy,  for  three  years  or  the 
war,  divided  into  sixteen  classes.  Based  on  a  popu 
lation  of  five  million  whites,  this  should  have  pro- 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  1 79 

duced  eight  hundred  thousand  men ;  it  did  give 
between  four  and  five  hundred  thousand  effective 
men.  In  September,  1862,  the  limit  of  age  was  ex 
tended  to  forty-five,  and  the  other  limit  was  made 
to  include  all  who  had  completed  their  seventeenth 
year  since  April. 

In  the  Confederate  army  there  were  many  Ger 
mans,  and  much  of  the  literature  of  the  war  on  the 
part  of  the  South  is  made  up  of  the  records  of  those 
who  served  on  that  side, — notable  among  them  Heros 
von  Borcke,  and  he  speaks,  in  his  Munchausen-like 
book,  of  finding  among  the  riflemen  an  old  Prussian 
soldier  from  Texas,  and  of  meeting  at  Lee's  head 
quarters  Captain  Scheibert,  of  the  Prussian  engineers, 
detailed  as  an  observer,  but  taking  an  active  part  as 
a  combatant,  and  the  author  of  a  book,  "  Sieben 
Monate  in  den  Rebellen  Staaten,"  published  in  Stet 
tin  in  1868,  characterized  by  its  strong  Southern 
tone.*  Then  there  is  the  book  of  another  German 

*  In  McClellan's  admirable  life  of  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  there  is 
a  paper  signed  by  that  distinguished  officer  under  date  of  June  17, 
1862,  in  which  he  says, — 

**M.  Heros  von  Borcke,  a  Prussian  cavalry  officer,  has  shown  him 
self  a  thorough  soldier  and  a  splendid  officer.  I  hope  the  [War] 
Department  will  confer  as  high  a  commission  as  possible  on  this 
deserving  man,  who  has  cast  his  lot  with  us  in  this  trying  hour" 
(p.  69). 

At  p.    307,  we   find   that   on   the    iQth   of  August,    1863,    Major 


180  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

soldier  of  fortune,  B.  Estvan,  whose  "  Kriegsbilder 
aus  Amerika"  appeared  in  Leipsic  in  1864,  as  it 
had  already  been  published  in  England  and  in  New 

Heros  von  Borcke,  an  officer  of  the  Prussian  army,  who  was  serving 
on  General  Stuart's  staff,  received  a  severe  wound,  which  disabled 
him  from  further  service. 

In  the  Southern  Bivouac  Magazine  for  February,  1886,  published 
at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  it  is  mentioned  at  p.  515  that  "the  distin 
guished  Colonel  Von  Borcke,  Stuart's  chief  of  staff,  lately  revisited 
Fauquier  County,  Virginia,  staying  near  Upperville,  on  the  northern 
border;  his  once  robust  constitution  much  affected  by  the  .ball  he 
still  carries  in  his  right  lung,  received  when  he  was  wounded  in  1863 ; 
but  his  jovial,  impulsive,  warm-hearted  nature  has  not  forsaken  him. 
Colonel  Von  Borcke  served  on  the  staff  of  Prince  Frederick  Charles, 
in  the  war  of  1866,  but  his  old  wounds  forced  him  to  retire." 

Captain  Scheibert's  interest  in  the  Southern  cause  did  not  end  with 
the  war;  on  returning  to  Germany,  where  he  became  major  in  the 
Prussian  Engineers,  he  corresponded  with  the  editor  of  the  Southern 
Historical  Society's  Papers.  In  vol.  v.,  p.  90,  his  letter  on  Gettys 
burg,  dated  Stuttgart,  November  21,  1879,  is  printed,  and  in  vol.  iv., 
p.  88,  there  is  a  notice  by  Colonel  Venables,  C.S.A.,  of  a  transla 
tion  of  Scheibert's  book  into  French,  by  Captain  Bonnecque,  of 
the  French  Engineers.  In  1883,  Major  Scheibert  published  a  Ger 
man  translation  of  Allan's  "  History  of  the  Valley  Campaign;"  and  in 
a  letter  of  October  13,  1881,  dated  at  Hirschberg,  Silesia,  Prussia,  he 
says  he  has  translated  and  printed  in  German,  Early's  "  Gettysburg," 
Stuart's  and  Lee's  "  Reports,"  Hubbard's  "  Chancellorsville,"  Patton's 
"Jackson,"  McClellan's  "Jeb  Stuart,"  Stuart's  "Gettysburg,"  and 
biographies  of  Lee,  Jackson,  Stuart,  and  Mosby.  His  "  Biirgerkrieg 
in  den  Vereinigten  Staaten"  has  been  translated  into  French  and 
Spanish. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  l8l 

York,  in  English,  in  1863.  Fritz  Annecke,  a  soldier 
in  the  West,  published  a  work  on  "  Der  zweite 
Freiheitskrieg,"  in  Frankfort,  in  1 86 1 ;  H.  Blanken- 
burg,  another  coming  down  to  the  Presidential  elec 
tion  in  1868  (Leipsic,  1869);  August  Conrad,  "  Schat- 
ten  und  Lichtbilder  aus  dem  amerikanischen  Leben 
wahrend  des  Secessionskrieges"  (Hannover,  1879); 
Rustow,  a  recognized  authority  on  war,  a  history 
of  the  war,  from  a  purely  military  point  of  view. 
Mangold  wrote  "  Der  Feldzug  in  Neu  Virginien  in 
August,  1862"  (Hannover,  1881),  which  has  received 
high  praise;  Constantin  Sander,  a  history  of  the 
war,  first  down  to  1862,  and  then  a  later  and  more 
complete  volume,  the  former  published  in  Frankfort  in 
1863,  the  second  in  1865.  "  Von  Achten  der  Letzte," 
published  in  Wiesbaden  in  1871,  is  a  German  story 
on  the  Southern  side,  of  adventures  by  a  German 
resident  of  New  Orleans,  enlisted  in  the  Washington 
Artillery  of  that  city.  It  gives  a  graphic  account  of 
personal  experiences,  and  presents  a  fair  view  of  the 
war  as  seen  by  one  who  shared  its  hardships  in  the 
Confederate  army.  Much  that  is  of  interest  on  the 
subject  is  to  be  found  in  the  volume,  "  In  der  neuen 
Heimath,  Geschichtliche  Mittheilungen  iiber  die 
Deutschen  Einwanderer  in  alien  Theilen  der  Union, 
herausgegeben  von  Anton  Eickhoff."  2te  Ausgabe, 
N.Y,  Sieiger,  1885,  8vo,  pp.  398. 

16 


1 82  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Of  translations  and  newspaper  magazine  articles 
in  German,  the  number  is  almost  endless.  Many 
Southern  citizens  living  abroad  tried  to  reach  the 
German  public  by  arguments  and  appeals,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  the  great  mass  of  the  German 
people  were  from  first  to  last  unshaken  in  their 
faith  in  the  success  of  the  Union.  The  ties  that  bind 
Germany  and  America  have  grown  in  strength  since 
the  representatives  of  the  two  countries  fought  side 
by  side. 

In  North  Carolina  there  were  a  goodly  number  of 
Germans  and  of  the  descendants  of  the  early  Ger 
man  settlers  in  the  Confederate  service.  In  Wil 
mington,  North  Carolina,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  war,  a  company  was  raised  under  the  name  of 
the  German  Volunteers,  afterwards  Company  A, 
Eighteenth  Regiment  North  Carolina  troops.  The 
officers  were,  C.  Cornehlsen,  captain ;  H.  Vollers, 
first  lieutenant;  G.  H.  W.  Runge,  second  lieu 
tenant;  E.  Schulken,  third  lieutenant.  There  were 
seventy-five  men  rank  and  file,  all  Germans,  in  this 
organization,  while  in  other  branches  of  the  ser 
vice,  artillery  and  cavalry,  as  well  as  in  the  Con 
federate  States  navy,  there  were  Germans, — so  that 
North  Carolina  had  a  fair  share  of  them  in  its  volun 
teers. 

South  Carolina  was  not  without  its  German  sol- 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  183 

diers.  Indeed,  as  early  as  1670,  the  first  German 
that  set  foot  in  Carolina,  John  Lederer,  made  a  tour 
of  exploration  under  the  direction  of  Governor  Wil 
liam  Berkeley,  of  Virginia ;  he  was  a  man  of  learn 
ing;  his  journal  was  written  in  Latin,  and  the  trans 
lator,  Sir  William  Talbot,  Governor  of  Maryland, 
speaks  highly  of  his  literary  attainments.  The  ac 
count  of  this  journey  was  published  and  circulated, 
and  doubtless  had  its  effect  in  the  settling  of  Caro 
lina,  for  it  is  certain  that  in  1680  German  immigration 
had  fairly  set  in.  Between  1730  and  1750  a  great 
addition  was  made  from  Switzerland  and  Germany, 
and  the  dreadful  war  that  scourged  the  peaceful 
inhabitants  for  so  many  years  drove  thousands  to 
America,  and  of  these  many  came  to  Carolina.  In 
1764  six  hundred  Palatines  arrived  in  South  Carolina. 
In  1766  the  German  Friendly  Society  was  founded 
in  Charleston,  and  as  early  as  1786  the  German 
Lutherans  were  included  among  the  leading  elements 
of  the  population.  Of  course  in  the  Confederacy, 
and  especially  in  its  army  from  South  Carolina  and 
in  the  defence  of  Charleston,  there  were  many 
Germans;  in  the  force  that  took  possession  of 
Fort  Moultrie  in  April,  1861,  there  was  the  German 
Artillery,  Captain  C.  Nohrden ;  and  among  the  troops 
furnished  by  the  city  of  Charleston  to  the  Southern 
army,  in  the  roster  printed  in  Courtenay's  "  History 


1 84  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

of  Charleston,"  are  the  following  German  organiza 
tions,  viz. : 

Fourth  Brigade  South  Carolina  Militia:  Ger 
man  Riflemen,  Captain  J.  Small;  Palmetto  Rifle 
men,  Captain  A.  Melchers. 

Seventeenth  Infantry,  German  Fusileers,  Captain 
S.  Lord,  Jr. 

First  Regiment  of  Artillery,  Major  John  A.  Wag- 
ener  (a  veteran  of  the  war  with  Mexico,  a  member  of 
Company  F,  the  Charleston  company  of  the  South 
Carolina  Regiment). 

German  Artillery,  Company  A,  Captain  C.  Nohr- 
den;  German  Artillery,  Company  B,  Captain  H. 
Harms. 

Cavalry,  German  Hussars,  Captain  Theodore 
Cordes. 

Marion  Rifles,  a  volunteer  corps  of  the  fire  depart 
ment,  Captain  C.  B.  Sigwald. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  of  the  Rebel 
lion,  the  Germans  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
took  an  active  share  in  the  war,  for  they  considered 
that  their  homes  were  assailed  by  the  North,  and  they 
volunteered  freely  for  the  war,  furnishing  about  four 
hundred  men.  After  the  battle  of  Hilton  Head,  No 
vember  7,  1 86 1,  Major  Wagener  took  command  of 
the  Home-Guards  in  Charleston,  and  the  commander 
of  Company  A  was  Captain  D.  Werner ;  of  Company 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  185 

B,  Captain  Franz  Melchers,  who  served  during  the 
rest  of  the  war.  The  command  was  reorganized 
after  the-war  as  one  company,  under  Captain  F.  W. 
Wagener,  who  had  served  during  the  war  after  Cap 
tain  Werner's  resignation.  The  German  Hussars, 
also  a  militia  company,  volunteered  for  the  war  under 
Captain  Theodore  Cordes;  on  his  death,  Captain 
Fremder  took  command,  and  after  his  death,  Captain 
Hanke  Wohlken  served  during  the  war.  The  Ger 
man  Volunteers  were  a  company  of  young  men  under 
Captain  W.  K.  Bachman;  they  volunteered  for  and 
served  throughout  the  war.  All  of  them  declared 
their  allegiance  to  the  home  they  had  chosen  volun 
tarily,  and  shared  the  fate  of  the  people  who  had 
received  them  kindly,  and  with  whom  they  lived 
in  close  friendship.  They  were  merchants,  lawyers, 
teachers,  clerks,  artisans,  etc.,  and  many  of  them 
passed  away  during  or  since  the  war.  Captain  F. 
Melchers  still  survives, — for  forty-four  years  a  resident 
of  Charleston,  and  for  thirty-seven  years  publisher  of 
the  Deutsche  Zeitung,  except  during  the  four  years  of 
the  war,  when  he  served  as  lieutenant  and  as  captain, 
and  as  lieutenant-colonel  on  the  staff  of  General  Wade 
Hampton.  Captain  F.  W.  Wagener  and  Captain 
Hanke  Wohlken  are  merchants,  Captain  W.  R. 
Bachman  a  lawyer,  and  Professor  C.  H.  Bergmann, 
of  the  German  School,  was  a  volunteer  and  orderly 

10* 


1 86  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

sergeant  in  Bachman's  company  during  the  war. 
The  survivors  have  erected  a  monument  to  their 
fallen  comrades,  and  the  Germans  of  Charleston  have 
contributed  a  handsome  sum  for  the  purpose. 

In  May,  1889,  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  this 
monument  was  erected  as  a  memorial  of  the  German 
soldiers  who  fell  in  the  Confederate  service.  The 
inscription  is  as  follows : 

In 

The  Confederate  Army 

The  Soldiers 
Whom  this  Monument 

Commemorates 

Illustrated  in  death  as  in  life 

The  German's  devotion  to  duty. 

The  names  of  the  battles  in  which  the  German 
Artillery,  the  German  Volunteers,  and  the  German 
Hussars  participated,  as  well  as  the  names  of  the 
fallen,  and  that  of  General  Wagener,  are  inscribed  on 
bronze  tablets.  The  services  at  the  unveiling  were 
impressive,  and  in  his  oration  Senator  and  General 
Hampton  paid  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  Germans  as 
soldiers  and  citizens. 

The  Charleston  companies  in  the  armies  of  the 
Confederate  States  for  the  war  (1861-65),  included 
in  Courtenay's  roster,  were : 

Three  companies  of  German  artillery.  • 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  l8/ 

Light  Battery  B,*  Hampton  Legion,  Captain  W. 
K.  Bachman. 

Light  Battery  A,  Captain  F.  W.  Wagener. 

Light  Battery  B,  Captain  F.  Melchers. 

Marion  Rifles,  Company  A,  Twenty-fourth  Regi 
ment  South  Carolina  Volunteers,  Captain  C.  B. 
Sigwald. 

German  Hussars,  Troop  G,  Third  Regiment 
South  Carolina  Cavalry,  Captain  Theodore  Cordes. 

In  Texas  many  Germans  served  in  the  Confed 
erate  army.  In  Walker's  Texas  Division,  the  Third 
Texas  Volunteer  Infantry  Regiment  had  Company 
B,  Captain  Biesenbuch,  Lieutenants  Koening  and 
Uhl;  Company  F,  Captain  Rosenheimer,  Lieuten 
ants  Ztuni  and  Hafner;  Company  G,  Captain  Sher- 
hagen;  Company  K,  Captain  Bosi,  Lieutenants  Sara- 
sin  and  Schleuning.  In  the  Sixteenth  Texas,  Colonel 
Flournoy,  Company  E,  Captain  G.  T.  Marold,  Lieu 
tenants  Klaedon,  Hanke,  and  GrofT;  Company  H, 
of  the  Seventeenth,  Captain  Sabath,  Lieutenant  Koll- 
mauer,  were  all  Germans. 

In   the   First  Virginia   Infantry,  Company  K  had 


*  This  company,  called  the  German  Volunteers,  was  raised  by 
the  German  citizens  of  Charleston,  mustered  into  service  for  the 
war  as  an  infantry  company,  and  subsequently  transferred  to  the 
light  artillery. 


1 88  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

Lieutenants  C.  Bauman,  B.  Bergmeier,  and  A.  Bit- 
zel* 

The  Louisiana  militia  organizations  at  the  outset 
of  the  Rebellion  included  the  New  Orleans  Yagers, 
Captain  Peters,  Lieutenants  Fassbinder  and  Huth; 
the  Sharp-shooters,  Captain  Christern ;  the  Fusileers, 
Captain  Sievers,  Lieutenants  Gerdes  and  Walbrack; 
the  Lafayette  Guards,  Captain  Koenig,  Lieutenants 
Hollenback  and  Fridebach ;  the  Jefferson  Guards, 
Captain  Wollrath,  Lieutenant  Lehman;  Turner 
Guards,  Captain  Bahncke,  Lieutenants  Von  Armlin- 
sen,  Eicholz,  and  Schneider ;  Steuben  Guards,  Captain 
Burger,  Lieutenants  Kehrwald,  Rosenbaum,  and  Haus- 
ner ;  Reichard  Rifles,  Captain  Reitmeyer,  Lieutenants 
Weise,  De  Petz,  and  Muller;  Louisiana  Volunteers, 
Captain  Ruhl,  Lieutenants  Von  Zincken  and  Barrel ; 
Black  Yagers,  Captain  Robenhorst ;  Florence  Guards, 
Captain  Brummenstadt,  Lieutenants  Lachenmeyer, 
Wassernagel,  and  Warburg.  Bachman's  was  one  of 
the  batteries  of  the  Washington  Artillery  of  New  Or 
leans;  the  Tenth  Louisiana  was  commanded  by 
Colonel  Waggaman. 

Von  Zincken's  regiment  was  composed  largely  of 
Germans  from  New  Orleans ;  it  was  in  Helm's  divi 
sion,  and  is  mentioned  by  General  Hill  in  his  article 

*  See  its  history  by  Charles  Loehr. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.    .          189 

on  Chickamauga,  in  the  Century  for  April,  1887,  p. 
960. 

In  Georgia,  among  the  troops  engaged  in  defence 
of  Fort  Pulaski  were  the  German  Volunteers,  Cap 
tain  John  H.  Stegin,  one  of  the  companies  of  the 
First  Volunteer  Regiment  of  Georgia. 

The  register  of  the  Confederate  States  army  contains 
the  following  German  names :  Colonels  J.  T.  Holtz- 
claw,  Eighteenth  Alabama,  Brigadier-General;  A.  H. 
Helvenstein,  Sixteenth  Alabama;  E.  Waggaman, 
Tenth  Louisiana;  L.  C.  Gause,  Thirty-second  Ar 
kansas  ;  Major  W.  O.  Yager,  Third  Texas  Cavalry  ; 
Captain  R.  M.  Gans,  Fourth  Texas  Cavalry;  Colonel 
J.  N.  Adenbousch,  Second  Virginia  Infantry ;  Colonel 
J.  N.  Waul,  Tenth  Texas,  Brigadier-General ;  Captain 
F.  C.  Schulz,  Chestnut  Artillery,  South  Carolina; 
Captain  C.  R.  Hanleiter,  Jr.,  Thompson's  Artillery, 
Georgia ;  J.  A.  Englehard,  Major  and  Assistant  Ad 
jutant-General,  Fender's  Light  Division,  Third  Corps; 
R.  W.  Memminger,  Assistant  Adjutant-General  and 
Chief  of  Staff,  Department  of  Mississippi  and  East 
Louisiana. 

Major-General  Hoke  was  a  distinguished  officer  of 
the  army  of  the  Confederate  States, — he  is  mentioned 
by  General  Johnston  in  his  article  in  the  North  Amer 
ican  Review  for  August,  1886;  his  grandfather  was  a 
German  Reformed  clergyman  in  Pennsylvania  named 


THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Hock.  General  Zollikoffer  was  the  descendant  of 
Swiss-German  ancestors,  whose  descendants  are  well 
known  in  various  parts  of  the  Union. 

Gustav  Schleicher  was  the  first  German  from  Texas 
in  Congress,  who  there  won  reputation  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  the  Germans  of  the  United  States.  Born 
in  Darmstadt  in  1823,  he  studied  at  Giessen,  became 
a  successful  civil  engineer,  emigrated  to  Texas  in 
1847,  established  himself  finally  in  San  Antonio, 
served,  successively,  in  both  branches  of  the  Texas 
Legislature,  was  lieutenant-colonel  and  colonel  of 
the  Texas  Rangers  in  the  Confederate  army,  and 
was  elected  to  the  United  States  Congress  in  1874 
as  a  German  Democrat.  He  showed  marked  abil 
ity,  thorough  training,  and  conscientious  study.  Re- 
elected  twice  to  Congress,  his  premature  death 
in  1879  cut  short  a  career  which  gave  promise 
of  honor  to  himself  and  usefulness  to  his  adopted 
country. 

Garfield,  in  "  My  Experience  as  a  Lawyer/'  North 
American  Review,  June,  1887,  p.  569,  said,  "Among 
the  various  speeches  I  have  made,  was  one  in  Jan 
uary,  1879,  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Gustav 
Schleicher,  of  Texas,  a  very  able  and  learned  German 
member  of  the  House,  for  whom  I  had  the  highest 
regard.  He  was  a  sound-money  man.  In  that 
speech,  I  started  out  by  saying,  '  We  are  accustomed 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  191 

to  call  England  our  fatherland.  It  is  a  mistake ;  one 
of  the  greatest  of  modern  historians,  writing  the  his 
tory  of  the  English  people,  has  said  that  England  is 
not  the  fatherland  of  the  English-speaking  people, 
but  Germany.'  I  go  into  that  and  say,  'The  real 
fatherland  of  the  people  of  this  country  is  Germany, 
and  our  friend  who  has  fallen  came  to  us  direct  from 
our  fatherland,  and  not,  like  the  rest  of  us,  around  by 
the  way  of  England/  Then  I  give  a  little  sketch  of 
German  character,  and  what  Carlyle  and  Montesquieu 
said,  that  the  British  Constitution  came  out  of  the 
woods  of  Germany." 

The  statistics  of  nativity  of  the  population  of  the 
States  at  the  time  of  the  Rebellion  are  not  to  be 
absolutely  ascertained.  I  find  in  "  Freiheit  u.  Skla- 
verei  unter  dem  Sternenbanner,  oder  Land  u.  Leute 
in  Amerika,"  by  Theodore  Griesinger,  Stuttgart, 
1862,  the  statement  that  in  Pennsylvania  there  were 
then  over  a  million  of  German  birth  and  descent; 
in  New  York,  800,000;  in  Ohio,  600,000;  in  New 
Jersey,  125,000;  in  New  England,  30,000;  while 
there  were  in  the  Southern  States,  in  Virginia, 
250,000;  in  Maryland,  125,000;  in  Missouri,  over 
100,000;  in  Louisiana,  50,000;  in  Texas,  30,000;  in 
Tennessee,  50,000 ;  in  North  Carolina  and  Kentucky, 
70,000;  in  Delaware,  25,000;  in  South  Carolina, 
20,000;  in  the  cotton  States, — Georgia,  Alabama, 


THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Mississippi,  and  Arkansas, — 10,000;  in  Florida,  5000. 
There  is  no  estimate  of  the  number  in  the  North 
west,  that  vast  region  from  which  came  the  volun 
teers  of  Illinois,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and 
Iowa.  Of  course  the  Germans  of  Missouri  sup 
plied  large  numbers  of  soldiers,  some  of  them  of 
great  distinction,  and  many  Germans  from  other 
States  went  to  Missouri,  as  that  was  almost  the 
first  seat  of  active  operations,  and  Fremont  and 
Sigel  and  Asboth  attracted  Germans  from  all  quar 
ters,  just  as,  in  the  East,  German  regiments  were 
asking  to  join  Blenker's  brigade  until  it  became 
a  division,  and  others  were  ready  to  swell  the  di 
vision  to  a  corps.  Indeed,  it  was  from  Blenker's 
demand  to  organize  and  lead  it  that  McClellan  was 
obliged  to  administer  a  reproof  which  led  finally  to 
his  resignation  from  active  service. 

The  best  attempt  at  an  official  analysis  of  the 
nativity  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  army  is  that 
found  in  the  volume  of  medical  statistics  published 
in  the  final  report  of  the  Provost- Marshal-General, 
General  James  B.  Fry,  U.S.A.,  in  which  it  is  stated 
that  out  of  343,764  drafted  men  there  were  from 
Wurtemberg,  I ;  Austria,  67 ;  Prussia,  754;  Bavaria, 
35;  Saxony,  15;  Germany,  35,935;  Switzerland, 
1 158 ;  total,  37,965  ;  but  in  another  place  in  the  same 
report  it  is  said  that  there  were  of  German  birth 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  193 

54,944  soldiers  drafted  in  the  service.  The  same  re 
port  says  that  during  the  Mexican  war  thirty  per  cent, 
of  the  American  army  were  of  foreign  birth,  and  that 
this  proportion  held  good  of  the  volunteers  during 
the  Rebellion,  but  in  times  of  peace  the  propor 
tions  were  reversed,  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  recruits 
being  of  foreign  birth.  It  is  also  stated  that  twenty- 
four  nationalities  were  represented  in  the  United 
States  army,  and  that  out  of  a  total  of  a  million 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  actually  in  the 
war,  there  were  seventy-five  thousand  Germans. 
This  is  certainly  very  far  short  of  the  actual  number, 
and  is  by  no  means  borne  out  as  accurate  even  by 
the  estimates  made  by  the  very  competent  authority 
of  the  statistician  employed  by  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission,  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  whose  tables 
are  based  upon  very  careful  mathematical  data,  and 
come  as  near  the  truth  as  can  be  expected  in  the 
absence  of  absolute  returns. 

The  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  in  addi 
tion  to  its  other  good  work,  published  "Investi 
gations  in  the  Statistics  of  American  Soldiers,"  by 
B.  A.  Gould  (New  York,  1869),  of  which  one  chapter 
is  devoted  to  the  nativity  of  the  United  States  Volun 
teers  (chap.  ii.  pp.  15-26).  It  gives  a  suggestive  list 
of  the  arrivals  of  aliens  in  the  United  States  as  fol 
lows : 

17 


194  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 


1860  .    .  153,640 

1861  .    .  112,705 

1862  .    .  114,475 


1863  .    .  199,811 

1864  .   .  221,535 


Thirty  in  each  hundred  alien  passengers  before  1861, 
and  thirty-three  in  each  hundred  during  the  war,  were 
males  of  military  age,  and  the  total  of  that  class  for 
the  years  of  the  war  may  be  placed  at  two  hundred 
and  twenty-nine  thousand  five  hundred  and  thirty-two. 

It  was  not  until  the  war  had  been  waged  for  some 
time  that  the  place  of  birth  was  systematically  re 
quired  on  the  enlistment  rolls;  the  actual  records 
are  therefore  very  imperfect,  and  as  many  men  en 
listed  at  different  times  for  different  periods, — in 
one  instance  five  times, — even  regimental  statistics 
are  misleading.  It  was  not  until  the  organization 
of  the  provost- marshal-general's  office  that  nativity 
was  made  an  essential  element  of  the  history  of 
each  soldier.  Out  of  the  two  and  a  half  millions  of 
men  in  the  army,  the  nativities  of  about  one  million 
two  hundred  thousand  have  been  collected  for  Dr. 
Gould's  work  from  the  records  at  the  national  and 
State  capitals,  of  about  two  hundred  and  ninety-three 
thousand  from  regimental  officers.  In  Missouri  it 
was  estimated  that  there  were  ten  thousand  re-enlist 
ments  among  the  German  population;  but  making 
due  allowance  for  these,  the  Sanitary  Commission 
gives  the  following  table  of  Germans,  volunteers  in 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 


195 


the  different  regiments  from  the  States,  and  in  the 
parallel  column  the  proportion  of  the  Germans  to  the 
native  and  other  nationalities  in  the  populations  of 
each  State;  and  I  have  added  the  German  popula 
tion  from  the  census  of  1860  in  another  column  : 


From 

Number  of 
German  Soldiers. 

Proportion  to 
whole  Population. 

Total  German 
Population. 
Census  of  1860. 

Maine  . 

244 

34 

2,601 

New  Hampshire    . 

952 

35 

412 

Vermont 

86 

19 

219 

Massachusetts 

1,876 

860 

9,96l 

Rhode       Island       and 
Connecticut 

}   2,919 

824 

r      845 
\    8,525 

New  York    . 

36,680 

22,591 

256,252 

New  Jersey  . 

7,387 

3,097 

33,772 

Pennsylvania 

17,208 

I3J73 

138,244 

Delaware 

621 

139 

1,263 

Maryland 

3,107 

2,373 

43,884 

District  of  Columbia     . 

746 

643 

3,254 

West  Virginia 

869 

194  (Va.) 

10,512 

Kentucky     . 

1,943 

1,276 

27,227 

Ohio     .... 

20,102 

18,984 

168,210 

Indiana 

7,190 

7,793 

66,705 

Illinois 

18,140 

16,647 

130,804 

Michigan 

3,534 

3,793 

38,787 

Wisconsin     . 

15,709 

12,729 

123,879 

Minnesota    . 

2,715 

2,172 

18,400 

Iowa    .... 

2,850 

3,239 

38,555 

Missouri 

30,899 

7,105 

88,487 

Kansas 

1,090 

692 

4,318 

A  grand  total  of 

187,858 

128,102 

1,118,402 

196  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

And  as  against  this  there  were  : 


British  Americans        ....     22,695  53>532 

English      ......    38>25o  45>5°8 

Irish  .......  139,052  144,221 

Other  foreigners          ....     39,455  48,410 

Foreigners  not  otherwise  designated   .          278  26,445 

Adding  to  these  the  native  Americans,  1,523,267, 
makes  a  total  of  2,018,200  soldiers  whose  nativity 
is  thus  established,  out  of  the  2,500,000  in  the  Union 
army. 

Part  of  the  unwritten  history  of  the  war  for  the 
Union  is  the  result  of  the  firm  stand  the  Germans 
took  in  defence  of  their  new  Fatherland.  In  the 
East,  and  still  more  in  the  West,  before  the  Rebellion 
the  German  element  was  hardly  appreciated  by  the 
mass  of  the  people.  With  the  outbreak  of  the  war  it 
asserted  itself,  and  won  a  place  in  the  consideration 
of  their  fellow-citizens  that  has  been  shown  by  their 
recognition  in  its  government,  and,  to  a  still  greater 
degree,  in  its  social  development.  In  the  Southwest, 
notably,  the  Southern  element  was  antagonistic  to 
the  Germans,  —  their  industry,  their  frugality,  their 
sobriety,  their  simple  tastes,  their  love  of  family, 
their  pride  in  their  homes,  were  all  elements  of  a  civ 
ilization  unknown  in  that  part  of  the  country.  When 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  197 

the  Germans  answered  the  appeal  to  support  and 
defend  the  Union,  their  uprising  was  a  surprise. 
Politicians  looked  unkindly  on  their  military  organ 
izations,  and  were  indisposed  to  give  them  a  place  in 
the  army.  The  steadiness  of  Blenker's  division  at 
Bull  Run  gave  his  German  regiments  a  consideration 
which  stood  them  in  good  stead  later  on,  when  dis 
asters  befell  them  at  Chancellorsville  and  at  Gettys 
burg.  In  the  West,  Sigel  organized  the  German 
regiments  and  helped  to  save  Missouri  to  the  Union. 

The  Germans  who  had  been  soldiers  at  home,  but 
were  employed  peacefully  throughout  the  country,  at 
the  first  appeal  to  arms  hurried  to  join  their  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  many  others  joined  them  who  had 
recently  come  over  here  to  seek  their  fortunes,  and 
not  a  few  whose  trade  was  war  helped  to  swell  the 
strength  of  the  German  regiments.  Asboth  organ 
ized  a  cavalry  brigade,  which  did  good  service  to  the 
end.  The  Fourth  (German)  Missouri  Cavalry  was 
one  of  his  regiments,  and  although  its  colonel  and 
its  adjutant  were  Americans,  most  of  its  officers  and 
all  of  its  rank  and  file  were  Germans,  old  soldiers, 
who  soon  showed  their  capacity  to  adapt  the  lessons 
of  their  old  military  experience  to  the  new  problems 
of  the  war  in  this  country. 

The  scattered  settlements  of  Germans  throughout 
Missouri  made  the  strength  of  the  Union  men  of  that 


198  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

State  and  kept  it  in  its  place.  Encouraged  in  turn 
by  the  success  of  their  countrymen,  large  numbers 
of  new  settlers  followed  their  example,  among  them 
many  who  had  seen  the  future  wealth  of  the  country 
even  in  a  time  of  war,  and  that  the  desolating  border 
war  which  carries  so  much  misery  in  its  course. 
Now,  throughout  Western  Missouri  there  are  thriving 
villages  and  prosperous  towns,  connected  by  a  net 
work  of  well-tilled  farms,  where  German  is  the  uni 
versal  element.  To  them  the  success  of  the  Union 
cause  was  the  guarantee  of  their  future  prosperity, 
and  from  their  support  it  derived  much  of  its  best 
strength. 

Colonel  Waring's  attractive  little  book,  "  Whip  and 
Spur"  (Boston,  1875),  gives  an  admirable  sketch  of  the 
life  in  the  Fourth  Missouri  Cavalry.  Full  of  grace, 
charming  in  tone  and  spirit,  told  with  the  true  feeling 
of  a  real  soldier,  it  shows  with  much  more  vivid  truth 
than  most  professed  histories  the  real  inner  life  of  a 
cavalry  regiment  largely  made  up  of  old  German 
soldiers.  From  its  lieutenant-colonel,  Von  Helmrich, 
for  twenty-eight  years  a  cavalry  soldier  in  Germany, 
down  to  the  Swiss  trumpeter,  all  were  imbued  with 
that  military  spirit  which  makes  the  typical  German 
soldier.  Colonel  Waring's  story  is  one  of  rough 
campaigns,  of  hurrying  expeditions,  of  hair-breadth 
'scapes,  of  a  soldier's  life  in  a  border  warfare,  and  it 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  199 

will  preserve  the  fame  of  the  Fourth  Missouri  Cav 
alry  when  the  dull  records  of  many  other  regiments 
have  been  forgotten.  It  is  just  such  a  book  as  will 
serve  to  keep  alive  the  best  memories  of  the  German 
cavalrymen  in  the  war  for  the  Union  in  the  West. 

The  German  soldier  of  the  West  and  Northwest  at 
once  took  his  right  place  in  the  army,  and  won  for 
himself  and  his  countrymen  the  respect  and  the  affec 
tion  and  the  confidence  of  his  native-born  fellow-citi 
zens.  What  was  before  a  scanty  permission  has  now 
become  a  matter  of  right,  and  the  German,  as  a  factor 
in  both  the  political  and  social  progress  of  the  coun 
try,  owes  his  place  to  what  was  done  and  won  for  it 
in  the  war  of  the  Rebellion.  Many  Germans  no 
doubt  came  over  here  as  a  sort  of  freebooters,  at 
tracted  by  the  high  pay  and  the  rapid  promotion, 
and  all  the  advantages  that  a  volunteer  army  enjoyed 
over  the  great  standing  army  of  their  native  country. 
Many  of  them  settled  here,  when  the  war  was  over, 
and  became  good  and  useful  citizens,  ready  to  do 
their  share  in  making  their  new  homes  prosperous 
and  happy.  Thus,  whatever  their  sacrifices, — and  they 
were  great  in  life  and  health, — their  reward  has  been 
proportionately  great,  and  the  Germans  throughout 
the  civilized  world  owe  much  of  their  present  po 
sition,  of  the  accepted  greatness  of  the  Empire,  to  the 
devotion,  freely  offered,  of  their  services  to  the  United 


2OO  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

States  in  its  hour  of  trial,  and  to  the  example  they 
then  gave  of  fidelity  to  their  political  principles. 

The  story  of  the  German  soldier  in  the  Rebellion 
is  one  of  the  characteristic  features  of  that  varying 
struggle.  In  the  outset  in  the  East  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  German  population  in  their  support  of  the 
Union  was  heartily  welcome.  In  Missouri,  under 
Sigel,  it  was  their  uprising  that  saved  that  State  to 
the  Union,  and  from  the  Germans  of  Missouri  and 
the  Northwest  there  came  soldiers  who  won  the  day 
against  the  disloyal  government  of  that  State.  Fre 
mont  rallied  around  him  bodies  of  German  troops  of 
a  strange  sort  at  first,  but  that  later  on  in  the  war 
became  useful  soldiers.  In  New  York,  Blenker 
raised  a  regiment  which  soon  swelled  to  a  brigade, 
and  then  to  a  division,  and  might  have  become 
an  army  corps.  Their  steadiness  in  protecting  the 
retreat  at  the  first  Bull  Run  won  for  them  general 
applause.  Their  camp  in  front  of  Washington,  during 
the  preparation  that  McClellan  gave  his  raw  troops, 
was  a  scene  of  military  displays  in  the  fashion  of 
Germany,  little  known  or  appreciated  by  our  work- 
a-day  army,  but  largely  admired  by  spectators  from 
far  and  near. 

The  successive  ill  fortune  of  the  German  troops 
under  Sigel  in  the  valley  of  Virginia,  and  under 
Howard  at  Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg,  was  fully 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  2OI 

atoned  for  by  their  share  in  the  operations  under 
Sherman.  From  being  overpraised  at  the  outset 
they  were  afterwards  unjustly  overblamed,  and  the 
truth  undoubtedly  rested  between  the  two  extremes. 
There  were  incompetent  officers  and  inefficient 
soldiers  in  their  number  in  the  outset,  but  these 
were  gradually  weeded  out,  and  in  the  end  it  can 
fairly  be  said  that  the  German  soldiers  in  the  Rebel 
lion  contributed  largely  to  the  success  that  finally 
crowned  the  war.  To  give  a  detailed  account  of  so 
large  a  number,  scattered  over  such  an  extent  of 
country,  would  be  impossible,  but  a  few  shining  ex 
amples  may  serve  the  purpose. 

In  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  War  Department  in 
1885,  there  is  given  the  local  designation  of  volun 
teer  organizations  in  the  United  States  army  dur 
ing  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  1860-65,  which  is  of 
interest,  as  showing  in  part  the  nationality  of 
troops. 

In  New  York : 

Dickel's  Mounted  Rifles,  Fourth  New  York 
Cavalry. 

Blenker's  Battery,  Second  Battery  Light  Artillery, 
New  York. 

Steuben  Regiment,  Seventh  New  York  Infantry. 

First  German  Rifles,  Eighth  New  York  Infantry. 


202  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

United  Turner  Rifles,  Twentieth  New  York  In 
fantry. 

First  Astor  Regiment,  Twenty-ninth  New  York 
Infantry. 

Fifth  German  Rifles,  Forty-fifth  New  York  In 
fantry. 

Fremont  Regiment,  Forty-sixth  New  York  In 
fantry. 

Sigel  Rifles,  or  German  Rangers,  Fifty-second 
New  York  Infantry. 

Barney  Rifles,  or  Schwartze  Yager  Regiment, 
Fifty-fourth  New  York  Infantry. 

Steuben  Rangers,  Eighty-sixth  New  York  Infantry. 

In  Pennsylvania : 

First  German  Regiment,  Seventy-fourth  Pennsyl 
vania  Infantry. 

Second  German  Regiment,  Seventy-fifth  Pennsyl 
vania  Infantry. 

In  Ohio  : 

First  German  Regiment,  Twenty-eighth  Ohio  In 
fantry. 

Second  German  Regiment,  Thirty- seventh  Ohio 
Infantry,  Colonel  Siber. 

Third  German  Regiment,  Sixty-seventh  Ohio  In 
fantry,  Colonel  Burstenbinder. 


„     WARS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  203 

In  Indiana: 

First  German  Regiment,  Thirty-second  Indiana, 
commanded,  successively,  by  Willich,  Von  Trebra, 
and  Erdelmeyer. 

In  Illinois : 

Hecker's  Yager  Regiment,  Twenty-fourth  Illinois. 

In  Wisconsin : 

First  German  Regiment,  Ninth  Wisconsin. 
Second    German    Regiment,    Twenty-sixth    Wis 
consin. 

Bates's  History  of  the  Pennsylvania  Regiments, 
etc.,  in  the  Rebellion,  is  a  huge  work  of  five  enor 
mous  volumes,  and  from  its  endless  pages  there  is 
much  material  to  be  gathered  bearing  on  the  Ger 
man  element  in  the  war.  Pennsylvania  naturally 
claims  for  its  citizens  of  German  descent,  including 
those  whose  ancestors  were  among  the  early  settlers, 
a  place  in  any  tribute  to  the  German  soldiers. 
Among  the  first  five  companies  organized  in  Penn 
sylvania  at  the  very  outset,  there  were  many  Penn 
sylvania  Germans ;  and  of  the  twenty-five  regiments 
raised  for  the  three  months'  service,  there  were  the 
Fourth,  with  Hartranft  as  its  colonel,  from  Norris- 
town  and  Pottstown;  the  Eighth,  from  Lehigh  and 


204  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Northampton;  the  Ninth,  from  Chester  and  Dela 
ware,  with  Pennypacker ;  the  Tenth,  from  Lancaster ; 
the  Eleventh,  from  Northumberland;  the  Fourteenth, 
from  Berks;  the  Fifteenth,  from  Luzerne;  the  Six 
teenth,  from  York  and  Schuylkill;  the  Eighteenth, 
in  Philadelphia,  under  Wilhelm;  the  Twenty-first, 
under  Ballier,  largely  made  up  of  Germans. 

Of  the  three-year  regiments,  those  who  bore  the 
brunt  of  the  war,  there  was  the  Twenty-seventh, 
which  gained  credit  from  and  for  Bushbeck;  while  of 
the  fifteen  regiments  of  the  Pennsylvania  Reserves, 
the  largest  organized  force,  indeed  the  only  division, 
sent  by  one  State  to  the  field,  many  of  its  members 
were  Germans  by  birth  or  descent;  and  so,  too,  of 
the  Forty-eighth,  from  Schuylkill ;  the  Fiftieth,  from 
Berks;  the  Fifty-first,  under  Hartranft,  from  Mont 
gomery;  the  Fifty-sixth,  under  Hofmann;  the  Sixty- 
fifth,  better  known  as  the  Fifth  Cavalry ;  the  Seventy- 
fourth,  from  Pittsburg ;  the  Seventy-fifth,  under  Boh- 
len ;  the  Seventy-ninth,  from  Lancaster ;  the  Eighty- 
eighth,  from  Berks  and  Philadelphia,  with  General 
Louis  Wagner;  the  Ninety-sixth,  from  Schuylkill; 
the  Ninety-seventh,  under  Pennypacker,  from  Chester 
and  Delaware;  the  Ninety-eighth,  the  old  Twenty- 
first  reorganized,  under  Ballier,  thoroughly  German 
in  rank  and  file;  the  One  Hundred  and  Twelfth,  or 
Second  Artillery, — so  large  a  regiment  that  out  of  it 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  2O$ 

a  second  regiment  was  organized ;  the  One  Hundred 
and  Thirteenth,  or  Twelfth  Cavalry,  and  the  One 
Hundred  and  Fifty-second,  or  Third  Artillery, — 
almost  distinctively  German.  Then  there  were  the 
One  Hundred  and  Thirtieth,  from  York;  the  One 
Hundred  and  Thirty-first,  from  Northumberland; 
the  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-third,  from  North 
ampton, — it  was  brigaded  under  Sigel,  Stahel,  and 
Von  Gilsa,  with  the  New  York  regiments  of  Salm, 
Holmstedt,  and  Von  Amsberg,  and  the  Eighty- 
second  Illinois,  of  Hecker;  the  One  Hundred  and 
Sixty-eighth  Pennsylvania  Volunteers,  from  Berks, 
organized  and  commanded  by  Colonel  Charles  A. 
Knoderer;  nothing  could  point  more  conclusively 
to  the  German  element  in  the  war  than  such  names 
as  these. 

This  is  a  fair  proportion  of  the  two  hundred  and 
fifteen  regiments,  nine  batteries,  and  two  independent 
companies]  raised  in  Pennsylvania,  and  even  a  hasty 
glance  at  the  long  list  of  names  of  officers  and  men 
of  the  successive  regiments  will  show  a  large  German 
element  scattered  throughout  them.  One  of  the  best 
elements  of  the  little  regular  army  was  the  supply 
of  excellent  non-commissioned  officers,  largely  old 
German  soldiers,  and  it  was  a  great  stroke  of  good 
fortune  when  a  volunteer  company  had  one  of  these 
well-trained  and  well-disciplined  men  in  its  ranks, — 

18 


206  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

he  steadied  the  whole  line,  and  gave  it  an  example 
of  soldierly  excellence  in  every  particular. 

Such  a  man  was  Edward  Scherer,  first  sergeant  of 
Company  B,  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-first 
Pennsylvania  Volunteers, — a  German  who  had  served 
in  a  battery  of  the  Third  United  States  Artillery, 
under  some  of  the  most  distinguished  officers  of  the 
regular  army.  Reynolds  and  Burnside  recognized 
him  as  an  old  comrade,  and  his  bearing  and  gallantry 
and  knowledge  of  the  real  business  of  soldiering  were 
the  object  of  universal  admiration  among  the  green 
hands,  both  officers  and  men,  of  his  regiment.  He 
fell  at  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  Virginia,  and 
he  was  but  a  type  of  that  large  number  of  German 
soldiers  who  served  in  the  ranks,  and  who,  like 
Scherer,  sacrificed  good  employment  at  home  to  do 
their  duty  to  the  country  of  their  adoption  at  its  hour 
of  supreme  peril  and  trial. 

A  characteristic  and  distinguished  example  of  the 
services  rendered  by  our  Pennsylvanians  of  German 
descent  is  the  brilliant  career  of  General  G.  Penny- 
packer,  of  the  Ninth  and  the  Ninety-seventh  Pennsyl 
vania  Volunteers.  Born  in  1842,  at  Valley  Forge,  he 
was  one  of  the  descendants  of  Heinrich  Pannebacker, 
who  came  to  America  from  Germany  before  1699,  and 
settled  on  Skippack  Creek.  Many  of  this  family  set 
tled  in  the  adjoining  counties  of  Montgomery,  Chester, 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  2O/ 

and  Berks,  and  of  the  later  generations  not  a  few 
found  their  way  into  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
and  Mississippi,  where  their  names  are  found  in  posi 
tions  of  importance  and  trust. 

On  the  rolls  of  those  who  served  in  the  Revolution 
and  the  later  wars  of  the  republic,  there  are  many 
representatives  of  this  old  German  stock.  The  Penny- 
packer  war  record  is  a  notable  one.  During  the  Rev 
olution  this  family  had  as  its  representatives  in  the 
Continental  army,  a  captain,  an  ensign,  a  lieutenant,  a 
corporal,  and  a  private.  In  the  war  of  1812  it  had 
two  of  its  members  in  the  field ;  in  the  Mexican  war, 
three.  In  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  it  furnished  to  the 
Union  army  two  major-generals,  one  adjutant-general, 
one  colonel,  one  surgeon,  one  assistant  surgeon,  two 
captains,  one  lieutenant,  five  sergeants,  eight  corporals, 
one  musician,  and  sixty-five  privates.  To  the  South 
ern  army  it  gave  one  lieutenant-colonel,  one  quarter 
master,  four  captains,  five  lieutenants,  and  twenty- 
eight  enlisted  men, — a  total  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight.  No  doubt  this  list  could  be  increased 
if  all  branches  of  the  old  stock  reported  their  military 
contingent.  At  all  events  it  is  worth  pointing  out, 
that  others  may  try  to  parallel  it  by  a  diligent  search 
through  their  own  records  for  other  examples  of  the 
kind.  The  great-grandfather  of  General  Pennypacker 
was  a  bishop  of  the  Mennonite  Church ;  his  father 


208  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

was  on  the  staff  of  General  Worth,  in  the  Mexican 
war.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  after  he  had  begun  life 
as  a  printer,  young  Pennypacker  became  a  member  of 
a  local  volunteer  company,  and  marched  with  it  to 
Harrisburg  on  the  first  summons  for  troops  in  1861, 
serving  with  it  in  the  Ninth  Regiment.  He  soon  be 
came  captain  and  then  major  of  the  reorganized  regi 
ment  in  the  three  years'  service,  the  Ninety-seventh, 
and  bravely  fought  his  way  through  the  war,  became 
colonel  of  the  regiment,  was  soon  put  in  command  of 
a  brigade,  won  his  star  as  a  brigadier-general  for  his 
gallantry  at  the  capture  of  Fort  Fisher,  at  twenty-two 
was  the  youngest  general  officer  in  the  war,  and  was 
brevetted  a  major-general.  In  1866  he  quietly  settled 
down  to  study  law,  when  he  was  appointed  colonel  of 
the  Thirty-fourth  Infantry  in  the  regular  army,  then 
assigned  to  the  Sixteenth ;  he  was  the  youngest  colo 
nel  in  the  regular  army,  and  finally  retired  in  1883  at 
an  age  when  with  most  men  a  career  of  distinction 
such  as  his  is  usually  just  beginning. 

Zinn,  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Thirtieth ;  Schall, 
of  the  Fifty-first,  one  of  eight  brothers  in  the  army ; 
Brenholz,  of  the  Fiftieth;  Gries,  of  the  One  Hundred 
and  Fourth ;  Kohler,  of  the  Ninety-eighth,  were  all 
of  Pennsylvania  birth,  but  of  German  descent. 
Knoderer,  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-eighth, 
was  born  in  Baden,  was  educated  at  Carlsruhe,  at  the 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  2OQ 

Polytechnical  School,  and  left  the  service  of  the  gov 
ernment  to  join  Sigel's  force  in  the  unsuccessful  revo 
lution  of  1849.  In  Reading  (Pennsylvania)  he  found 
a  new  home  and  employment  as  a  civil  engineer  ;  but 
when  the  Rebellion  broke  out  he  went  first  as  a  cap 
tain  of  engineers  on  Sigel's  staff,  then  enlisted  as  a 
private  and  was  elected  colonel  of  the  Eleventh  Penn 
sylvania,  and  afterwards  was  appointed  colonel  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Sixty-eighth  Pennsylvania,  and 
fell  at  its  head  on  the  3Oth  January,  1863,  near  Suffolk, 
Virginia. 

Ballier  was  born  in  Wiirtemberg  in  1815;  studied 
at  the  military  school  at  Stuttgart  in  1833-34;  set 
tled  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Washington  Guard,  the  first  German  military  organi 
zation  in  the  North,  in  1836;  enlisted  as  a  private  in 
the  First  Pennsylvania  for  the  Mexican  war,  was  made 
major  for  his  services  there ;  then  was  colonel  of  the 
Twenty-first  and  of  the  Ninety-eighth  for  the  Rebel 
lion.  Twice  seriously  wounded,  he  survived  to  renew 
the  recollection  of  his  varied  experiences,  a  veteran 
of  many  battles,  dying  peacefully  at  his  home  in 
Philadelphia. 

Hartranft's  commission  as  brigadier-general  was  won 
by  his  services  at  Bull  Run,  Antietam,  and  Freder- 
icksburg;  and  as  the  hero  of  Fort  Stedman  he  be 
came  a  major-general.  His  services  in  civil  life  were 

1 8* 


210  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

equally  distinguished,  and  his  career  was  marked 
by  well-earned  honors,  as  Governor  of  Pennsylvania, 
as  the  chief  representative  of  the  Federal  govern 
ment  in  Philadelphia,  and  as  the  head  of  the  State 
militia. 

The  "  Genealogical  Record  of  the  Schwenkefelders" 
(Manayunk,  1879)  giv^s  this  brief  biography  at  p.  233 : 
"John  Frederick  Hartranft,  born  in  New  Hanover 
Township,  Montgomery  County,  Pennsylvania,  Decem 
ber  16,  1830:  he  is  the  sixth  in  descent  from  Tobias 
Hartranft  [Hertheranfft],  who  came  to  Pennsylvania,  in 
*734>  w^h  the  early  refugees  from  religious  intolerance 
in  their  native  country.  He  studied  at  Marshall  Col 
lege,  Pennsylvania,  and  graduated  in  1853  at  Union 
College,  Schenectady,  New  York.  He  was  colonel  of 
the  First  Regiment,  Montgomery  County  militia,  and 
led  it  as  the  Fourth  Pennsylvania  into  the  field,  and 
served  on  the  staff  of  General  Franklin  at  Bull  Run. 
On  June  27,  1861,  he  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the 
Fifty-first  Pennsylvania,  and  took  part  in  the  battles  of 
Roanoke  Island,  New-Berne,  the  Second  Bull  Run, 
Chantilly,  South  Mountain,  Antietam,  Fredericksburg, 
Vicksburg,  Jackson,  Knoxville,  Wilderness,  Spottsyl- 
vania,  North  Anna,  Cold  Harbor,  Petersburg,  Fort 
Stedman,  Petersburg,  and  Richmond.  He  was  commis 
sioned  a  brigadier-general  May  12,  1864,  and  brevet 
major-general  March  25,  1865.  He  was  appointed 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  211 

colonel  of  the  Thirty-fourth  United  States  Regiment, 
July  28, 1866,  but  declined  the  commission,  preferring 
to  retire  to  civil  life.  In  October,  1865,  and  again  in 
1868,  he  was  elected  auditor-general,  and  in  1873 
governor,  and  in  1875  he  was  elected  for  a  second 
term."  He  was  appointed  by  President  Hayes  post 
master  of  Philadelphia,  and  by  President  Arthur  col 
lector  of  the  port,  and  was  general  commanding  the 
National  Guard  of  Pennsylvania  at  the  time  of  his 
death. 

Everard  Bierer,  colonel  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Seventy-first  Pennsylvania,  was  the  son  of  German 
parents,  settled  in  Fayette  County.  He  won  his  first 
successes  in  the  Eleventh  Pennsylvania  Reserves, 
was  appointed  by  Governor  Curtin  to  be  colonel  of 
the  One  Hundred  and  Seventy-first,  and  was  pro 
moted  to  the  command  of  a  brigade.  Now  he  is 
a  successful  lawyer,  legislator,  and  farmer  in  Kansas. 

Colonel  Lehmann,  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Third, 
was  born  in  Hanover  in  1812,  was  educated  there  at 
the  military  school,  served  for  six  years  in  the  army, 
and  in  1837  came  to  Pittsburg,  where  he  became  a 
teacher.  He  organized  the  Sixty-second  Pennsylva 
nia,  was  its  lieutenant-colonel,  then  was  colonel  of 
the  One  Hundred  and  Third,  and  after  the  war  re 
sumed  his  work  of  education,  and  became  president 
of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Military  Academy. 


212  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

The  Wisters  who  served  in  the  war  by  the  half  a 
score  were  all  of  that  good  old  German  stock  whose 
representatives  are  so  well  and  honorably  known  in 
every  walk  of  life  in  their  native  city  and  far  beyond  it. 

Philadelphia  sent  General  Isaac  J.  Wister,  colonel 
of  the  Seventy-first  Pennsylvania ;  Major  Joseph  W. 
Wister,  of  the  Eighth  Pennsylvania  Cavalry;  Colo 
nel  Francis  Wister,  captain  of  the  Twelfth  United 
States  Infantry,  and  colonel  of  the  Two  Hundred 
and  Fifteenth  Pennsylvania ;  Colonel  Langhorne  Wis 
ter,  captain  of  the  First  Pennsylvania  Rifles,  "  Buck- 
tails,"  colonel  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Penn 
sylvania,  and  brevet  brigadier-general ;  Colonel  Wil 
liam  Rotch  Wister,  of  the  Twentieth  Pennsylvania 
Cavalry. 

William  Doster,  colonel  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry, 
was  born  in  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  where  his 
father,  a  native  of  Swabia,  settled  in  1817,  marrying 
the  daughter  of  a  Vorsteher  of  the  Brethren's 
House,  the  granddaughter  of  a  Revolutionary  sol 
dier.  A  graduate  of  Yale  of  '57,  and  of  the  Har 
vard  Law  School  of  '59,  he  studied  law  in  Heidel 
berg  and  Paris.  Returning  to  this  country,  he 
became  major  of  the  Fourth  Pennsylvania  Cavalry, 
led  it  in  the  Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg  cam 
paigns,  and  was  promoted  for  his  services. 

General  J.  William  Hofmann,  colonel  of  the  Fifty- 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  213 

sixth  Pennsylvania,  was  the  son  of  Prussian  parents, 
who  settled  in  Philadelphia  in  1819.  Long  an  active 
member  of  local  militia  organizations,  he  went  to  the 
field  a  thorough  soldier,  and  his  career  was  one  of 
distinguished  gallantry,  characterized  alike  by  merit 
and  modesty.  The  opinion  of  all  his  superior  offi 
cers  was  an  uniform  and  unanimous  approval  of  his 
ability  and  his  courage,  and  he  deserves,  as  he  has 
won,  and  he  enjoys,  the  respect  of  his  fellow-citizens 
for  the  distinguished  services  he  rendered  in  all  the 
responsible  positions  assigned  him  during  his  long 
period  of  active  service. 

General  Adolph  Bushbeck  was  born  in  Coblenz, 
Prussia,  in  1822,  the  son  of  a  German  officer.  From 
his  eleventh  to  his  seventeenth  year  he  was  at  the 
cadet  school  in  Berlin,  then  became  ensign  and  lieu 
tenant,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Steinwehr  was  ap 
pointed  instructor  at  the  cadet  school  at  Potsdam, 
from  1847  to  1852.  In  1853  he  came  to  Philadel 
phia,  and  was  well  and  favorably  known  as  a  suc 
cessful  teacher.  When  the  Rebellion  broke  out  he 
became  major,  and  later  colonel  of  the  Twenty- 
seventh  Pennsylvania,  and  in  that  and  his  successive 
commands,  as  general  of  brigade  and  division,  won 
unstinted  praise  for  his  high  soldierly  qualities. 
From  General  Sherman  he  received  warm  commen 
dation.  The  war  over,  he  returned  to  Philadelphia, 


214  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

and  resumed  his  former  occ.upation  for  some  years, 
and  then,  going  abroad  with  his  family,  died  in  Flor 
ence,  Italy,  in  1883. 

Henry  Bohlen  was  born  in  Bremen  in  1810.  As 
early  as  1831,  on  the  recommendation  of  Lafayette, 
he  was  appointed  on  the  staff  of  General  Gerard, 
and  served  during  the  siege  of  Antwerp.  In  the 
Mexican  war  he  served  on  the  staff  of  General 
Worth,  and  took  part  in  many  engagements.  In 
the  Crimean  war  he  served  in  the  French  army,  and 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion,  returning  from 
Europe,  where  he  was  living  in  great  splendor,  enjoy 
ing  a  large  fortune  and  a  brilliant  social  position,  he 
raised  the  Seventy-fifth,  a  German  regiment,  mainly 
at  his  own  expense,  and  led  it  with  such  distinguished 
gallantry  that  he  was  commended  in  warm  terms  by 
Fremont  and  Sigel,  under  whom  he  served,  and  was 
soon  appointed  a  brigadier-general.  His  brilliant 
career  ended  in  his  death  in  action,  in  August, 
1862. 

The  Vezins — Oscar,  Henry,  Alfred — served  with 
credit  in  various  branches  of  the  service,  always  doing 
honor  to  a  name  that  belongs  to  one  of  the  leading 
merchants  of  Philadelphia  in  its  days  of  greatness  as 
a  commercial  city. 

Henry  Vezin  was  captain  Company  G,  Fifth  Penn 
sylvania  Cavalry ;  Alfred,  captain  Company  C,  Fif- 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES,  21$ 

teenth  Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  and  afterwards  adjutant 
Fourth  Missouri  Cavalry. 

The  name  of  General  John  A.  Koltes  is  perpetuated 
in  that  of  Post  No.  228  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  which  thus  does  due  honor  to  that  gallant 
soldier.  He  organized  the  Seventy-third  Regiment, 
originally  known  as  the  Pennsylvania  Legion,  Forty- 
fifth  of  the  line.  It  was  recruited  in  Philadelphia,  in 
June  and  July,  1861,  and  was  first  at  a  rendezvous  at 
Lemon  Hill.  Colonel  Koltes,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Muehleck,  and  Major  Schott  were  the  field-officers.  It 
joined  Blenker's  division  in  September,  and  went  with 
it  through  the  West  Virginia  campaign  under  Fre 
mont  and  Sigel,  and  then  under  Pope  into  the  second 
Bull  Run.  Koltes  was  in  command  of  the  brigade, 
and  Brueckner  of  the  regiment,  when  they  both  fell 
in  action  on  the  3Oth  of  August,  1862,  gallantly  lead 
ing  their  men  against  an  overwhelming  force.  Gen 
eral  Schurz,  in  his  report  as  division  commander, 
commends  the  conduct  of  Koltes  and  his  brigade, 
temporarily  attached  to  his  division.  It  consisted  of 
the  Sixty-eighth  New  York,  the  Twenty-ninth  New 
York,  and  the  Seventy-third  Pennsylvania,  with  Dil- 
ger's  Battery.  He  says,  "  The  gallant  Koltes  died  a 
noble  death  at  the  head  of  his  brave  regiments," 
and  he  deplores  "the  brave  and  noble  Koltes." 
General  Sigel,  who  commanded  the  First  Corps, 


2l6  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

regrets,  in  his  report,  "the  death  of  the  intrepid 
Koltes." 

General  Koltes  was  born  in  Treves  in  1827,  and 
came  to  this  country  while  he  was  still  a  lad,  in  his 
seventeenth  year.  He  became  a  teacher  in  a  Catholic 
institute  in  Pittsburg,  enlisted  in  1846  as  a  volunteer 
in  the  Mexican  war, -and  afterwards  in  the  regular 
army.  On  his  return  he  was  employed  in  the  United 
States  Mint,  became  a  member  of  the  Scott  Legion, 
and  took  an  active  part  in  the  local  militia.  He 
drilled  the  Mannerchor  Rifle  Guards  for  home  ser 
vice,  and  recruited  a  regiment  for  the  war.  He  re 
ceived  a  commission  as  brigadier-general,  and  it  was 
at  the  head  of  his  brigade  that  he  fell  in  action  at 
the  second  Bull  Run.  Koltes  was,  like  Ballier, 
Binder,  and  Bohlen,  among  the  active  spirits  in  the 
early  military  organizations  in  Philadelphia:  Besides 
the  Philadelphia  regiments,  they  furnished  for  the 
war  four  companies  of  Philadelphia  Turners,  who 
joined  their  comrades  in  the  Turner  Regiment,  or 
ganized  in  New  York  under  Colonel  Soest,  and  many 
went  into  New  Jersey  regiments  and  those  of  other 
States. 

Among  the  young  Germans  of  Philadelphia,  Fritz 
Tiedeman  has  a  high  place  for  his  gallant  services. 
He  was,  successively,  quartermaster-sergeant,  second 
lieutenant,  adjutant,  and  captain  of  the  Seventy-fifth 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

Pennsylvania,  and  then  on  the  staff  of  General 
Schurz;  and  his  brother,  who  fell  early  in  the  war, 
gave  promise  of  equal  merit. 

General  Louis  Wagner  was  born  in  Giessen,  Ger 
many,  in  1838,  and  came  to  Philadelphia  as  a  lad,  with 
his  father,  a  revolutionary  refugee,  in  1849.  Educated 
at  the  public  schools,  in  1861  he  entered  the  service 
as  a  first  lieutenant  of  the  Eighty-eighth  Pennsylvania 
Volunteers,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  was  colonel  of 
the  regiment  and  a  brevet  brigadier-general.  Return 
ing  to  civil  life,  he  organized  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1866,  and  has  been  one  of 
the  leading  men  of  that  organization  ever  since.  He 
has  taken  a  very  active  part  in  other  civil  and  military 
bodies,  and  has  been  honored  by  many  elective  offices 
and  appointments,  all  of  which  he  has  filled  with 
characteristic  zeal  and  energy. 

New  York,  as  the  gathering-place  of  all  nationali 
ties,  naturally  sent  many  Germans  to  the  army.  The 
Thirty-ninth,  or  "  Garibaldi  Guard,"  consisted  of  three 
companies  of  Germans,  three  of  Hungarians,  one  each 
of  Swiss,  Italians,  and  French,  and  one  of  Spanish 
and  Portuguese. 

The  Seventh  Regiment  Infantry,  New  York  State 
Volunteers,  or  "  Steuben  Rangers,"  organized  by  Colo 
nel  John  E.  Bendix,  and  reorganized  by  Colonel  G. 
von  Schach,  had,  as  its  original  officers,  Lieutenant- 

19 


2l8  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Colonel  Edward  Kapff,  Major  C.  Keller,  and  Captains 
Goebel,  Boecht,  Brestel,  Pfeiffer,  Anselm,  Hocheimer, 
S.  L.  Kapff,  Schonleber,  Bethan,  Wratislau. 

The  Eighth,  or  "  First  German  Rifles,"  was  organ 
ized  by  Blenker,  who  commanded  a  brigade  at  the 
first  Bull  Run,  and  a  division  under  Fremont  in  the 
valley  campaign.  It  was  in  Sigel's  corps  in  the  second 
battle  of  Bull  Run. 

The  Twentieth,  or  "United  Turner  Rifles,"  was 
organized  by  the  New  York  Turn-Verein,  in  April, 
1 86 1,  from  its  societies.  German  citizens  provided 
the  money  for  its  expenses;  a  committee  of  ladies, 
called  the  "Turner-sisters,"  supplied  many  necessa 
ries.  Max  Weber  was  its  colonel,  Franz  Weiss  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  and  Englebert  Schnepf  major. 

The  Twenty-ninth,  or  "Astor  Rifles,"  was  organ 
ized  by  Steinwehr,  who,  in  his  farewell  order,  says  it 
was  the  last  to  leave  the  field  at  Bull  Run,  and  served 
with  distinction  under  Fremont  and  Sigel,  and  at 
Chancellorsville,  and  earned  a  place  in  the  history  of 
the  war. 

The  Fifth  New  York  State  Militia  was  a  German 
organization;  its  officers  were  Colonel  Schwarzwal- 
der,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Burger,  Major  Von  Amsberg. 

Of  the  Forty-first,  or  "  De  Kalb  Guards,"  Colonel 
Von  Gilsa,  seven  hundred  of  its  men  had  been  in  the 
Prussian  service  in  the  Schleswig-Holstein  war.  One 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  2 19 

\     •  * 

company  was  raised  in  Philadelphia,  and  another  in 
Newark,  New  Jersey. 

The  Fifty-second  Regiment  Infantry,  New  York 
State  Volunteers,  wa^  organized  at  Staten  Island, 
New  York,  in  the  autumn  of  1861,  by  the  consolida 
tion  of  four  companies  of  the  "  Sigel  Rifles"  and 
six  companies  of  the  "  German  Rangers,"  under 
Colonel  Paul  Frank.  The  commanders  of  companies 
were : 

A.  Captain  Charles  G.  Freudenberg. 

B.  Captain  Henry  L.  Klein. 

C.  Captain  Gustave  Schultze. 

D.  Captain  Oscar  von  Schoening. 

E.  Captain  J.  C.  Messerschmidt. 

F.  Captain  Charles  Mohring. 

G.  Captain  O.  C.  Garwin. 
H.     Captain  Jacob  Rueger. 

I.     Captain  Adolphus  Becker. 

K.     Captain  Francis  Benzler. 

The  lieutenant-colonel  was  Louis  Kasouzki;  major, 
Philip  C.  Lichtenstein.  A  national  flag,  a  regimental 
flag,  and  two  guidons  were  presented  by  the  German 
ladies  of  New  York. 

It  formed  part  of  the  Third  Brigade,  First  Divis 
ion,  Second  Corps,  was  brigaded  with  the  Fifty- 
seventh  and  Sixty-sixth  New  York,  and  Fifty-third 
Pennsylvania,  under  Sumner,  French,  Zook,  and 


220  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Frank.  At  Antietam  it  lost  its  lieutenant-colonel, 
Lichtenstein;  at  Gettysburg,  its  brigade  commander, 
Zook;  in  the  Wilderness  campaign  under  Hancock, 
two  gallant  Germans,  Count  Haake  and  Baron  Von 
Steuben,  both  officers  of  the  Prussian  army,  serving 
as  volunteers  in  that  of  the  Union.  Count  Haake 
was  a  brave  and  gentle  comrade,  of  kind,  modest,  and 
unassuming  manners,  endeared  to  his  fellow-soldiers 
by  his  manly  virtues.  His  epitaph  is  written  in  the 
hearts  of  all  who  knew  him,  as  a  brave  and  true 
soldier,  who  fell  in  battle  for  a  noble  cause. 

In  October  of  1864  the  remnant  of  the  original 
Fifty-second,  five  officers  and  thirty-five  men,  under 
Major  Retzius,  returned  to  New  York.  Colonel 
Frank,  promoted  to  be  a  brigadier- general,  was  suc 
ceeded  by  Colonel  Karples,  and  under  him  the 
regiment  was  finally  mustered  out  in  July,  1865.  Of 
the  two  thousand  eight  hundred  whose  names 
appear  on  its  rolls,  only  two  hundred  returned; 
thirty-four  of  its  officers  were  killed  or  disabled  dur 
ing  its  four  years  of  service. 

The  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion  is  for  the 
Union  army  what  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  was 
for  the  Revolutionary  army.  Its  records  preserve 
and  perpetuate  the  memories  of  many  gallant  sol 
diers.  Among  them  is  to  be  found  a  sketch  of  the 
life  and  services  of  Carl  Gottfried  Freudenberg.  Born 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  221 

in  Heidelberg,  Germany,  May  I,  1833,  at  an  early 
age  he  entered  the  military  service  as  a  cadet  in  the 
Carlsruhe  School.  While  there  the  revolution  of 
1848  broke  out,  and,  although  but  fifteen,  he  took 
the  field  with  his  fellow-students,  and  was  engaged 
in  the  battle  fought  near  Mannheim.  As  his  mind 
matured  it  developed  such  conclusions  upon  political 
liberty  as  impelled  him  to  forego  brilliant  prospects 
of  preferment,  and  he  came  to  the  United  States  a 
few  years  before  the  great  Rebellion.  When  a  call 
was  issued  for  soldiers  he  raised  a  company  of  in 
fantry,  and  with  it  entered  the  service  as  captain  of 
the  Fifty-second  New  York  Volunteer  Infantry,  Au 
gust  3,  1 86 1.  On  the  gth  of  November  he  became 
its  major,  and  was  severely  wounded  at  the  battle 
of  Fair  Oaks.  On  November  24,  1862,  he  was  pro 
moted  lieutenant-colonel,  and  commanded  his  regi 
ment  at  Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg,  where  he 
was  again  desperately  wounded.  Forced  to  leave 
the  field  by  his  injuries,  he  resigned  his  commission 
in  the  Fifty-second  New  York  and  accepted  an  ap 
pointment  as  major  in  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps, 
organized  the  Twenty-third  Regiment,  and  on  April 
22,  1864,  became  its  lieutenant-colonel,  serving  in 
the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen,  and  Abandoned 
Lands,  as  commandant  at  Milwaukee,  and  as  inspector- 
general  and  commandant  of  the  District  of  Wiscon- 

19* 


222  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

sin.  On  the  reorganization  of  the  army  he  was  ap 
pointed  captain  of  the  Forty-fifth  (Veteran  Reserve) 
Infantry;  in  1869  was  transferred  to  the  Fourteenth 
Infantry,  was  brevetted  colonel  of  volunteers,  and 
major  and  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  regular  army. 
In  May,  1870,  he  went  with  his  regiment  to  the 
Northwest,  to  quell  a  threatened  Indian  outbreak, 
but  in  December  he  was  obliged  to  go  on  the  retired 
list  as  captain,  and  in  1877  he  was  promoted  lieuten 
ant-colonel.  He  died  in  Washington,  August  28,  1885, 
enjoying  the  confidence  and  affection  of  all  who  knew 
him,  as  the  very  embodiment  of  personal  honor  and 
soldierly  virtue. 

One  of  the  most  effective  services  rendered  the 
cause  of  the  Union  was  the  long  series  of  political 
cartoons  furnished  to  Harper's  Weekly  during  the 
civil  war  by  Thomas  Nast,  born  on  the  Rhine  in 
1840.  His  pencil  was  recognized  far  and  wide  as 
that  of  a  sturdy  champion,  and  his  productions  were 
heartily  welcomed  by  the  soldiers  in  the  field  and  by 
earnest  patriots  everywere.  Thomas  Nast  was  born 
in  Landau,  Bavaria,  September  27,  1840,  and  came 
with  his  mother  to  New  York  in  1846,  and  was  there 
joined  in  1849  by  his  father,  who  had  served  on  the 
man-of-war  "  Ohio."  He  began  to  work  on  Frank 
Leslie's  illustrated  paper,  studied  in  the  Academy  of 
Design,  made  a  campaign  with  Garibaldi  in  1860, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  22$ 

sending  sketches  to  the  New  York,  London,  and 
Paris  illustrated  papers,  returning  to  New  York  in 
1861.  His  contributions  to  Harper's  Weekly  became 
historical:,  and  have  received  the  well-merited  praise 
of  historians  and  art  critics.  They  were  useful  in 
keeping  alive  the  loyal  feeling  of  the  North,  and  re 
ceived  the  hearty  plaudits  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field. 
When  peace  was  restored  he  won  new  honors  in  the 
civil  contest  that  waged  over  Andrew  Johnson's  ad 
ministration,  and  now  he  fights  for  good  government 
with  his  pencil. 

The  Princess  Salm-Salm,  in  her  book,  "  Ten  Years 
of  My  Life," — and  a  very  adventurous  one  it  was, — 
describes  the  camp  of  the  German  division  (Blen- 
ker's)  in  front  of  Washington,  in  the  fall  of  1861,  as 
the  principal  point  of  attraction.  It  consisted  of 
about  twelve  thousand  men,  under  Blenker  and  Stein- 
wehr,  who  had  gained  great  credit  for  protecting  the 
retreat  from  the  first  Bull  Run.  Blenker  was  born  in 
Tours,  had  served  in  the  Bavarian  army  and  in  that 
of  Greece  under  its  Bavarian  king,  took  part  in  the 
German  revolution  of  '48,  fled  to  Switzerland,  then 
came  to  New  York,  and  was  farming  when  the  Rebel 
lion  broke  out.  He  raised  the  Eighth  New  York,  and 
Prussian  and  Austrian  soldiers  furnished  a  consider 
able  proportion  of  its  officers,  among  them  Prince 
Salm-Salm,  who  served  to  the  end  of  the  war,  then  in 


224  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Mexico,  and  finally  fell  in  the  Franco-Prussian  war. 
Another  of  his  officers  was  Corvin,  who,  after  six 
years  in  Prussian  prisons  as  a  penalty  for  his  share  in 
the  German  revolution,  came  to  this  country  as  the 
war  correspondent  of  the  London  Times .  and  the 
Augsburger  Allgemeine  Zeitung. 

Among  other  German  officers  were  Von  der 
Groeben ;  Von  Schack,  colonel  of  the  Seventh  New 
York;  Von  Buggenhagen,  one  of  its  captains;  Von 
Radowitz,  Schwenke,  Gerber,  Max  Weber ;  Schirmer, 
chief  of  artillery  of  the  Eleventh  Corps ;  Von  Putt- 
kammer,  of  the  Third  Corps;  Von  Amsberg,  Von 
Gilsa,  Von  Kussefbw,  Von  Kleisser ;  Von  Schrader,  of 
the  Seventy- fourth  Ohio,  killed  in  action;  Von  Trebra, 
of  the  Thirty-second  Indiana ;  and  Leppien,  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  First  Maine  Artillery,  one  of  the  most 
gallant  soldiers  from  Philadelphia. 

Carl  Schurz  was  the  first  colonel  of  the  first  regi 
ment  of  volunteer  cavalry  duly  authorized  to  be 
raised.  On  his  way  to  New  York  he  found  Chor- 
man's  Rangers  also  inviting  recruits,  while  other 
cavalry  companies  were  being  busily  raised  in  Phila 
delphia.  In  New  York  he  found  additional  coun 
trymen  at  work, — Frederick  von  Schickfuss,  August 
Haurand,  Count  Haake,  Von  Blakenburg,  Bern  de 
Tavergnier,  Von  Strautz,  Von  Veltheim,  Count  Fer 
dinand  Storch,  and  Count  Von  Moltke,  Hendricks, 


WARS  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  22$ 

Passegger,  Hertzog, — who  soon  found  plenty  of  men. 
Schurz  himself  went  to  Spain  as  United  States  min 
ister,  and  the  regiment  was  fortunate  in  having  for  its 
first  colonel  in  the  field  A.  T.  M.  Reynolds,  a  very 
good,  experienced  soldier.  The  four  companies  of 
Germans  were  all  old  soldiers.  Their  record  through 
the  war  is  a  very  creditable  one,  and  the  First  New 
York  Cavalry  did  its  work  so  well  that  Germans  may 
be  proud  of  their  countrymen  in  it  both  from  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania. 

Carl  Schurz  was  born  March  2,  1829,  in  Liblar,  near 
Cologne,  studied  in  Bonn,  where  he-  became  a  friend 
of  Kinkel,  one  of  the  noted  leaders  in  the  German 
revolution  of  1848,  took  part  in  the  attack  on  the 
arsenal  at  Siegberg,  joined  Kinkel  in  the  outbreak  in 
Baden,  and  when  it  was  put  down  by  the  German 
Imperial  army,  under  the  then  Crown  Prince  of 
Prussia,  later  Emperor  of  Germany,  was  imprisoned 
with  Kinkel,  but  escaped  to  Switzerland.  In  1850  he 
went  to  Berlin  under  a  false  name  and  helped  Kinkel 
to  escape  from  the  State  Prison  at  Spandau.  He  then 
went  to  London,  where  he  married  in  1852,  and  emi 
grated  to  America.  In  the  United  States  he  filled, 
successively,  the  positions  of  journalist,  diplomatist, 
general,  and  statesman,  always  in  the  service  of  free 
dom  and  humanity,  and  doing  honor  to  his  German 
nativity,  securing  his  fellow-countrymen  a  leading 


226  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

part  in  the  great  political  agitation  for  the  Union. 
In  1855  he  took  a  prominent  part  as  a  public 
speaker  in  Wisconsin  for  the  Republican  party, 
and  helped  it  win  its  great  triumph.  In  1860  he 
was  a  lawyer  in  Milwaukee;  in  1861  he  was  sent  to 
Spain  as  minister ;  returning  to  take  part  in  the  war 
for  the  Union,  he  rose  rapidly  to  be  major-general, 
and  commanded  a  division  in  the  battle  of  Bull  Run, 
taking  an  active  part  in  a  succession  of  battles, 
notably  at  Gettysburg  and  Chattanooga.  After  the 
war  he  became  an  editor,  publishing  in  1866  the 
Detroit  Post,  in  1867  the  Westlichen  Post  in  St.  Louis, 
in  1883  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  and  in  1885  the 
Boston  Post.  In  the  mean  time  he  rilled  with  credit  a 
succession  of  public  positions.  In  1 869  he  was  elected 
United  States  Senator  for  Missouri;  in  1877  he  was 
appointed  Secretary  of  the  Interior  by  President 
Hayes.  Distinguished  as  an  orator,  both  in  English 
and  German,  an  able  parliamentarian,  capable  alike  of 
wielding  sword  and  pen,  he  has  become  a  public  man 
of  weight  in  both  his  native  and  his  adopted  coun 
tries,  demanding  recognition  alike  of  German  virtues 
and  of  American  capacity  for  self-government.  His 
recent  honors  in  Germany  attest  his  popularity  there. 
The  German  element  in  the  cavalry  and  artillery 
went  far  to  make  both  of  these  arms  of  the  service 
efficient  and  capable.  In  every  regiment  of  cavalry 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  22/ 

and  in  every  battery  of  artillery  there  were  found  old 
German  soldiers,  trained  in  a  way  that  made  them 
models  for  the  green  recruits,  and  instructors  alike 
of  officers  and  men.  In  most  of  the  regiments  of 
the  regular  army  there  were  privates  and  non-com 
missioned  officers,  Germans  by  birth  and  soldiers  by 
training,  who  were  looked  on  with  the  respect  that 
courage  and  discipline  always  secure.  Many  of 
them  were  promoted  to  commissions,  and  some  of 
them  commanded  volunteer  regiments  with  great 
credit.  One  of  the  most  notable  trained  and  veteran 
German  soldiers  was  Adolph  von  Steinwehr,  who 
was  born  September  25,  1825,  at  Blankenburg,  in 
Brunswick.  His  father  was  a  major,  his  grandfather 
a  lieutenant-general.  He  studied  in  the  military 
school,  became  a  lieutenant,  came  to  the  United 
States,  and  served  as  an  officer  of  an  Alabama  regi 
ment  during  the  Mexican  war.  He  was  employed 
as  an  engineer  by  the  United  States,  married  in 
Mobile,  returned  to  Germany,  and  then  became  a 
farmer  in  Connecticut.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war  he  became  colonel  of  the  Twenty-ninth  New 
York,  part  of  the  Germans  that  excited  interest  and 
admiration  by  their  steadiness  at  the  first  Bull  Run. 
This  led  to  the  organization  of  a  German  division 
under  Blenker, — the  First  Brigade  under  Stahel :  the 
Eighth,  Wutschel;  Thirty-ninth,  D'Utassy,  and  Forty- 


228  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

fifth,  Von  Amsberg,  New  York ;  and  Twenty-seventh 
Pennsylvania,  Bushbeck ;  Second  Brigade,  Steinwehr  : 
Twenty-ninth,  Kozlay;  Fifty-fourth,  Kryzanowsky; 
Fifty-eighth,  Gellman,  New  York;  Seventy-third 
Pennsylvania,  Koltes ;  Third  Brigade,  Bohlen :  Forty- 
first,  Von  Gilsa,  and  Sixty-eighth,  Kleefisch,  New 
York;  Seventy-fourth,  Schimmelpfennig ;  Seventy- 
fifth,  Mahler,  Pennsylvania;  Fourth  New  York  Cav 
alry,  Dickel;  batteries  of  Schirmer,  Wilderich,  and 
Sturmfels.  There  were  changes  in  the  organization 
in  which  Sigel  and  Schurz  obtained  successive  com 
mands.  Finally,  at  Chancellorsville  the  tide  turned, 
and  the  Germans  of  the  Eleventh  Corps  were  spoken 
of  as  if  the  ill  fortune  of  the  battle  was  due  to  them. 
Steinwehr,  however,  was  always  honored  for  the  con 
duct  of  his  troops,  and  at  Gettysburg  again  his  mili 
tary  reputation  was  enhanced  by  his  services.  Under 
Sherman  he  won  fresh  honors  in  the  West,  and 
served  in  the  army  until  the  close  of  the  war.  From 
that  time  until  his  death  in  1877  he  was  engaged  in 
the  work  of  authorship  on  subjects  for  which  his 
thorough  training  especially  fitted  him.  His  char 
acter  was  marked  by  many  manly  qualities,  and  his 
name  is  an  enduring  example  of  German  patriotism, 
soldiership,  and  culture. 

Leopold  von  Gilsa,  colonel  of  the  Forty-first  New 
York   Volunteers,   the    De    Kalb    regiment,   was   a 


WARS  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  229 

typical  ^German  soldier.  Born  in  Prussia  in  1825, 
the  son  of  a  Prussian  officer,  he  served  in  that  army, 
for  which  he  was  specially  educated,  became  a  major 
in  the  Schleswig-Holstein  war,  and  soon  afterwards 
came  to  this  country.  He  was  peaceably  employed 
in  teaching  when  the  Rebellion  broke  out,  and 
then  he  organized  his  regiment,  and  won  for  it  the 
distinction  of  a  thoroughly  well-disciplined  and  ca 
pable  body  of  good  soldiers.  Wounded  at  Cross 
Keys,  he  gained  the  confidence  and  admiration  of 
his  superiors  by  the  way  in  which  he  handled  his 
regiment  and  the  brigade,  and  by  his  services  as  chief 
of  staff  to  General  Sigel  when  he  was  in  command 
of  the  Eleventh  and  Twelfth  Corps.  He  served  until 
1864,  when  he  was  mustered  out  as  colonel,  although 
he  had  served  as  commander  of  brigade  and  division. 
Returning  to  civil  life,  he  died  in  New  York  in  1870, 
in  consequence  of  the  wounds  and  exposure  inci 
dental  to  four  years  of  almost  uninterrupted  cam 
paign  life,  marches,  and  battles.  Gilsa  Post,  No.  264, 
of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  fitly  marks,  by 
the  adoption  of  his  name,  the  honor  intended  to  be 
paid  his  memory  by  those  who  could  best  appreciate 
his  services  to  his  adopted  country  and  his  example 
of  the  devotion  of  his  life  to  the  cause  in  which  he 
and  his  countrymen  were  united. 

The  First  New  York  Battalion  of  Light  Artillery, 

20 


23O  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

known  as  Brickel's  Artillery,  was  composed  of  four 
batteries,  all  Germans, — Major  Brickel,  Captains  Diet 
rich,  Voegelin,  Knierim,  and  Kusserow.  After  An- 
tietam,  where  Major  Arndt,  commander  of  the  bat 
talion,  was  killed,  the  batteries  were  made  indepen 
dent,  and  were  numbered  Twenty-ninth,  Thirtieth, 
Thirty-first,  and  Thirty-second.  The  Twenty-ninth 
was  afterwards  consolidated  with  the  Thirty-second, 
Captain  Von  Kusserow.  Captain  Kleisser  was  pro 
moted  to  command  of  the  Thirtieth,  and  the  Thirty- 
first  was  subsequently  consolidated  with  the  Thirtieth. 
In  1865,  Kusserow  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  Sec 
ond  Regiment  of  Hancock's  Veteran  Corps.  The 
Twenty-ninth  and  Thirty-second  Batteries  were  con 
solidated  with  the  Fourth  and  Fifteenth  Indepen 
dent  Batteries,  but  retained  the  number  Thirty-second. 
Von  Kusserow  was  an  old  officer  of  the  Prussian 
army,  the  son  of  General  Von  Kusserow.  He  died 
in  Philadelphia,  and  was  buried  in  presence  of  the 
German  consul,  Major  Mergenthaler,  and  H.  Dieck, 
his  old  comrades  in  arms. 

Colorado  had  forty-two  Germans  in  the  Second 
Regiment,  besides  others  whose  nationalities  are 
given  as  Austria,  Prussia,  Poland,  Denmark,  Swe 
den,  Russia,  Norway,  Bohemia,  Saxony,  Holland, 
Bavaria,  and  Switzerland;  so  that  even  on  the  bor 
ders  the  proportion  of  foreigners  was  a  very  large  one. 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  23! 

Among  the  notable  officers  from  Illinois,  besides 
Hecker,  whose  memory  deserves  especial  mention, 
there  was  General  Knobelsdorff,  a  graduate  of  the 
military  school  at  Culm,  Prussia,  who  was  a  lieuten 
ant  in  the  Prussian  army,  joined  the  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein  army,  and  came  with  hundreds  of  his  comrades 
to  the  United  States  in  1851.  He  lived  in  Milwau 
kee  and  Chicago,  and  when  the  Rebellion  broke  out  or 
ganized  the  Twenty-fourth  and  Forty-fourth  Illinois, 
commanded  a  brigade  in  Sigel's  corps,  under  Asboth, 
and  had  under  him  Colonel  Nicholas  Greusel,  of  the 
Seventh  and  Thirty-sixth  Illinois,  and  Colonel  Julius 
C.  Raith,  of  the  Forty-third.  The  Thirteenth  Illinois 
Cavalry  was  also  largely  a  German  organization. 

Adolph  Engelmann  served  in  the  Mexican  war  in 
the  Second  Illinois,  and  during  the  Rebellion  was 
colonel  of  the  Forty-third  Illinois,  receiving  the  ap 
pointment  of  brigadier-general  as  a  reward. 

His  predecessor  in  the  Forty-third  Illinois,  Julius 
C.  Raith,  was  born  in  Germany  in  1820,  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1837,  served  as  lieutenant  in  the 
Second  Illinois  in  the  Mexican  war,  was  promoted 
to  captain,  and,  good  Democrat  as  he  had  been,  was 
ready  to  serve  in  the  war  for  the  Union  as  colonel 
of  the  Forty-third, — a  German  regiment  largely  or 
ganized  by  Gustav  Korner.  He  fell  at  Shiloh,  in 
command  of  a  brigade. 


232  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Hugo  Wangelin  was  educated  at  the  military 
school  of  Berlin,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1834, 
served  in  the  Twelfth  Missouri,  under  Osterhaus,  and 
succeeded  him  in  command  of  the  regiment  when 
Osterhaus  was  promoted,  making  a  reputation  for 
distinguished  gallantry  for  himself  and  his  German 
soldiers,  representatives  of  the  best  elements  of  Ger 
man  emigration  in  the  West.  Wangelin  took  part 
in  twenty-eight  engagements,  and  died  in  1883. 

Gustav  Korner  was  a  leading  spirit  in  all  German 
organizations  in  the  West,  both  in  peace  and  war, 
and  his  term  of  office  as  governor  was  marked  by 
many  events  of  importance. 

Korner  himself  is  a  representative  German,  and  his 
earnest  efforts  to  advance  German  culture  and  to  in 
graft  it  on  American  patriotism  deserve  hearty  rec 
ognition.  His  services  in  organizing  troops  and  in 
the  executive  chair  of  Illinois  are  well  known.  His 
name  is  honorably  perpetuated  in  his  book  describing 
the  successive  and  successful  settlement  of  Germans 
throughout  the  United  States.  He  has  creditably 
represented  his  adopted  country  abroad,  and  is  now 
among  the  veterans  around  whom  cluster  the  asso 
ciation  of  all  that  is  best,  alike  in  German  and 
American  patriotism. 

Thielemann's  cavalry  battalion  and  Hotaling's  com 
pany  of  the  Second  Illinois  Cavalry,  and  Stolleman's 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  233 

and  D'OsbancTs  and  Gumbart's  artillery,  are  among 
the  German  organizations  that  received  frequent  and 
always  honorable  mention  in  the  history  of  the 
Western  campaigns. 

Gumbart's  Battery,  Second  Illinois  Light  Artillery, 
was  organized  by  Captain  Adolph  Schwarz,  a  son  of 
Major-General  Schwarz,  of  Baden.  He  was  severely 
wounded  at  Shiloh.  The  first  lieutenant  was  M.  W. 
Mann,  now  a  citizen  of  Texas. 

Friedrich  Hecker  is  one  of  the  names  that  unite 
Germany  and  America  in  a  common  love  of  liberty. 
Born  in  Baden  in  1811,  educated  at  Heidelberg  and 
Munich,  he  became  a  leader  of  the  Republican  party 
in  his  native  country,  and  was  recognized  as  one  of 
the  master-spirits  of  the  outbreak  of  1848.  To  its 
failure  we  owe  the  large  accession  of  Germans,  whose 
part  in  the  Union  cause  has  become  one  of  the 
brightest  pages  of  our  history.  His  welcome  to  his 
new  fatherland  was  hearty  and  universal.  He  settled 
down  to  a  quiet  farmer's  life  in  Illinois,  took  an  active 
share  in  the  work  of  the  Republican  party,  enlisted  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  in  Sigel's  regiment  in 
St.  Louis,  commanded,  successively,  the  Twenty- 
fourth  and  the  Eighty-second  Illinois  Volunteers,  and 
left  the  field  only  because  he  was  so  severely  wounded 
that  he  could  no  longer  serve  in  the  army.  Like  Carl 
Schurz,  he  was  invited  to  return  to  Germany  to  take 

20* 


234  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

part  in  the  organization  of  its  unity  as  an  empire,  but 
his  love  of  America  and  American  freedom  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  leave  his  home.  He  was  a 
representative  man  among  the  Germans,  active  in  all 
their  best  work  in  civil  life,  and  his  death,  on  the  22d 
of  September,  1881,  called  forth  universal  expression 
of  grief  and  sorrow.  At  his  grave,  and  afterwards 
at  the  dedication  of  a  monument  to  his  memory  in 
St.  Louis,  his  old  associates  and  his  younger  admirers 
bore  testimony  to  the  respect  "and  affection  in  which 
Hecker's  name  was  held.  Sigel,  Schurz,  Korner, 
Thielemann,  Rombauer,  Stifel,  Ledergerber,  Engle- 
mann,  and  many  who  had  fought  together  on  both 
continents  for  republican  principles,  attested  the  ser 
vice  done  to  constitutional  liberty  in  Europe  and 
America  by  Friedrich  Hecker,  and  the  gratitude  of 
Germany  and  of  all  Germans  alike  in  the  old  and  the 
new  fatherland. 

Colonel  Emile  Frey,  the  Swiss  minister  to  the 
United  States,  was  an  officer  of  Hecker's  Illinois  regi 
ments,  the  Twenty-fourth  and  Eighty-second;  he 
volunteered,  and  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  former  and 
became  a  major  in  the  latter,  thus  serving  as  a  sol 
dier  in  two  republics,  that  of  his  native  Switzerland 
and  in  that,  of  his  temporary  home.  The  son  of  a 
distinguished  Liberal  leader  in  the  Canton  of  Basel, 
the  father  was  fortunate  enough  in  his  old  age  to  see 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES,  2$$ 

him  a  soldier  in  the  American  republic,  and  later  the 
diplomatic  representative  of  that  of  Switzerland  in 
Washington.  Colonel  Frey's  return  to  the  United 
States  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  hearty  welcome 
alike  from  his  countrymen  arid  from  his  fellow-soldiers, 
and  his  well-earned  reputation  as  a  soldier  in  defence 
of  the  American  Union  was  heightened  by  his  able 
management  of  the  interests  of  the  Swiss  Confedera 
tion  in  the  United  States.  The  tie  that  unites  the  two 
republics  was  greatly  strengthened  by  this  marked 
instance  of  the  good  service  rendered  the  Union  cause 
by  its  Swiss  soldiers.  A  sketch  of  a  Swiss  company 
of  sharp-shooters  serving  during  the  war  was  printed 
at  Richtersweil,  Switzerland,  in  1865,  under  the  title, 
"  Drei  Jahre  in  der  Potomac-armee  oder  eine  Schweit 
zer  Schutzen  Compagnie  im  Nordamerikanischen 
Kriege"  (8vo,  pp.  228).  The  report  made  to  the 
Swiss  Confederation  by  its  veteran  general  Dufour  is 
one  of  the  best  accounts  of  the  Federal  forces  at  the 
outset,  and  the  visit  of  that  gallant  soldier  is  still  re 
membered  by  all  who  met  him  during  his  stay  in  this 
country.* 

Iowa  has  preserved  in  the  reports  of  the  adjutant- 
general  of  the  State  a  list  of  the  places  of  nativity  of 


*  A  soldiers'  monument,  raised  in  Chicago,  perpetuates  the  heroic 
deeds  of  German- American  soldiers. 


236  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

its  soldiers.  Germany,  of  course,  has  its  representa 
tives  in  almost  every  organization,  and  in  the  Sixteenth 
and  Twenty-sixth  Iowa  Volunteers  there  were  com 
panies  entirely  composed  of  Germans,  rank  and  file, 
while  the  Fifth  Cavalry  was  composed  in  part  of  Ger 
mans  enlisted  at  Dubuque  and  Burlington  for  the  Fre 
mont  Guards,  by  Colonel  Carl  Schaefer  de  Boernstein, 
who  fell  in  action  in  Tennessee  in  May,  1862,  and  was 
mourned  as  a  gallant  soldier. 

Matthes's  Iowa  battalion  won  distinction  in  Sher 
man's  army.  Colonel  Nicholas  Perczel,  of  the  Tenth 
Iowa,  was  also  commended  as  an  excellent  soldier. 

From  the  French  colonists  settled  at  Icaria,  in 
Iowa,  came  a  number  of  soldiers,  among  them  Anton 
von  Gaudain,  who  was  born  in  Berlin,  of  French- 
Huguenot  stock, — the  son  of  an  army  officer,  and 
himself  trained  for  an  army  officer.  He  came  to  the 
United  States  at  twenty-five,  edited  a  French  paper 
in  New  York,  taught  school,  joined  the  Icarian  com 
munity  in  Icaria,  served  for  three  years  in  the  Union 
army,  and  after  the  war  made  his  home  in  Corning, 
Iowa,  near  a  settlement  of  French  Icarians,  where  he 
died,  in  1883.  He  was  a  scholar  of  remarkable  at 
tainments,  and  was  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him. 

Henry  Koch,  born  in  Baireuth,  in  1800,  learned  the 
trade  of  watchmaker,  and  followed  it  in  his  native 
town  until  participation  in  politics  of  too  radical  a 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  237 

character  brought  him  to  prison.  After  his  release 
he  came  to  America,  landing  in  Baltimore  in  1832. 
He  established  a  colony  of  communists  in  Clayton 
County,  Iowa,  on  the  plans  suggested  by  Fourier. 
He  served  as  a  captain  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  spent 
the  rest  of  his  life  in  Dubuque,  where  he  died  in  1879. 

Another  German  refugee,  Weydemeyer,  a  friend 
and  disciple  of  Carl  Marx,  the  founder  of  German 
socialism,  served  with  distinction  in  the  Union  army 
during  the  late  war,  and  after  its  close  was  elected 
auditor  of  St.  Louis,  where  he  died. 

The  civil  war  offered  the  Turnerbund  an  opportunity 
to  earn  a  good  name  for  themselves  and  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  From  every  quarter  the  Turners  re 
sponded  to  Lincoln's  call  for  troops,  some  of  the 
unions  sending  more  than  half  their  members.  In 
New  York  they  organized  a  complete  regiment  in  a 
few  days,  and  in  many  places  they  sent  one  or  more 
companies.  There  were  three  companies  in  the  First 
Missouri,  while  the  Seventeenth  consisted  almost 
altogether  of  Turners.  Leavenworth  and  Cincinnati, 
too,  sent  a  strong  proportion  from  their  unions.  It  is 
estimated  that  from  forty  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  all 
Turners  capable  of  bearing  arms  took  part  in  the  war. 
Prominent  among  them  was  General  Franz  Sigel.* 

*"Jhe  Labor  Movement  in  America,"  by  R.  T.  Ely,  pp.  220,  221, 
and  223.  New  York,  1886. 


238  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Connecticut  had  in  its  Sixth  Regiment  a  com 
pany  of  Germans  from  New  Haven,  Norwich,  and 
Waterbury,  commanded  by  Captain  Klein,  who  be 
came  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  regiment,  and  an 
other,  under  Captain  Biebel,  from  Bridgeport,  Meri- 
den,  and  New  York.  In  its  Eleventh  Regiment, 
Captain  Moegling  had  a  company  of  Germans  from 
New  Haven  and  Fairfield. 

Indiana,  according  to  the  report  of  the  adjutant- 
general  of  that  State,  had  in  its  volunteer  regiments 
6456  Germans, — not  far  short  of  the  7190  credited  to 
the  State  by  Dr.  Gould  after  the  war  had  enabled 
him  to  make  a  fuller  comparison  of  figures, — and  a 
fair  proportion  of  the  14,940  foreigners  serving  in 
and  for  that  State,  and  of  the  155,578  of  its  volun 
teer  soldiers.  Among  the  most  noteworthy  of  its 
representative  German  soldiers  were  General  August 
Willich,  and  Colonel  John  Gerber,  killed  in  com 
mand  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Indiana  at  Shiloh,  April 
7,  1862. 

A  German,  Albert  Lange,  was  one  of  the  active 
staff  of  Governor  Morton,  and  worked  faithfully  to 
enable  that  State  to  do  its  share  successfully  in  the 
war  of  the  Rebellion.  Another  German,  John  B. 
Lutz,  led  the  -Indiana  forces  in  their  resistance  to 
Morgan's  raids.  The  Thirty-second  was  a  distinc 
tive  German  regiment,  organized  in  Dearborn,  Floyd, 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES.  239 

Fort  Wayne,  Jefferson,  and  other   farming   districts, 
from  the  best  classes  of  German-American  settlers. 

Kentucky  had  many  Germans  among  its  fifty-six 
thousand  loyal  soldiers,  and  just  as  the  Germans 
saved  St.  Louis  and  Missouri  to  the  Union,  so  they 
helped  to  keep  Louisville  and  Kentucky  out  of  the 
Confederacy.  F.  Bierbower  was  major  of  the  For 
tieth  Kentucky.  Von  Kielmansegge  served  in  cav 
alry  commands  in  Missouri,  Florida,  and  Maryland, 
where  Von  Koerber  was  also  a  major  of  the  First 
Cavalry. 

Minnesota  wisely  preserved  a  list  of  the  nativities 
of  its  soldiers  in  the  reports  of  its  adjutant-general 
during  the  war.  Company  G,  of  the  Second  Regi 
ment,  and  Companies  D  and  E,  of  the  Fifth  Regi 
ment,  were  both  German  organizations ;  and  Henning 
von  Minden  was  captain  of  Company  A  of  the  bat 
talion  of  cavalry  raised  by  him,  and  Emil  Munch  was 
captain  of  the  First  Minnesota  Light  Artillery.  John 
C.  Becht,  major  of  the  Fifth  Minnesota,  and  R.  von 
Borgersock,  colonel,  are  among  the  notable  German 
officers  from  this  State. 

William  Pfaender  was  first  lieutenant  of  the  First 
Minnesota  Battery,  and  in  command  at  the  battle  of 
Shiloh.  Later,  he  became  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
Second  Minnesota  Cavalry. 

Maine  had  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  its  First  Artil- 


240  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

lery  Regiment  and  captain  of  its  Fifth  Battery,  George 
F.  Leppien,  who  had  been  lieutenant  in  a  Pennsyl 
vania  battery.  He  was  well  known  to  Philadelphians 
from  his  residence  and  his  connection  with  leading 
citizens  of  that  city.  Educated  at  a  military  school 
in  Germany,  he  showed  himself  a  thorough  soldier 
in  his  life  and  in  his  heroic  death. 

Michigan  supplied  four  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  seventy-two  Germans  out  of  a  total  of  fourteen 
thousand  foreigners,  and  in  addition  to  seventy-six 
thousand  native-born  citizens,  in  its  portion  of  the 
army.  It  is  worth  noting  that  Gould's  estimate  gives 
only  three  thousand  five  hundred  and  thirty- four. 

In  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  volumes  of  Der 
Deutsche  Pionier,  Cincinnati,  1879-80,  are  published 
numerous  contributions  on  the  outbreak  of  the 
civil  war  in  Missouri,  by  Friedrich  Schnake,  which 
give  in  great  detail  the  part  taken  by  its  German 
citizens  in  saving  that  State  for  the  Union.  The 
leaders  of  German  thought  and  opinion  in  St.  Louis 
counted  many  who  afterwards  fought  for  their  faith 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Union  army.  Carl  Danzer, 
Theodore  Olshausen,  Heinrich  Bornstein,  and  L.  C. 
Bernays,  as  editors  of  the  Westlichen  Post  and  Anzeiger 
des  Western,  did  much  to  strengthen  their  German 
readers  in  their  political  views,  and  Friedrich  Munch, 
Franz  Sigel,  Friedrich  Hecker,  and  Gustav  Korner 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  24! 

gave  their  powerful  help  to  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
Carl  Schurz,  Friedrich  Hassaurek,  J.  B.  Stallo,  and 
others  were  the  leading  Republican  orators  in  the  war 
of  words  that  preceded  the  appeal  to  arms.  Emil 
Rothe,  Egly,  Briihl,  and  Dresel  were  Douglas  Dem 
ocrats,  and  Carl  Rumelin  was  spokesman — almost 
without  any  German  following — for  the  Breckenridge 
wing  of  the  party,  although  the  secession  lieutenant- 
governor,  Thomas  C.  Reynolds,  was  said  to  be  really 
named  Reinhardt,  and  a  native  of  Prague.  A  German, 
Arnold  Krekel,  now  a  judge  of  the  United  States 
Court,  presided  over  the  convention  which  forever 
abolished  slavery  in  Missouri.  Blair  and  Lyon,  Scho- 
field  and  Saxton,  were  the  active  representatives  of  the 
national  government  in  Missouri,  but  their  strength 
came  from  the  support  of  the  loyal  Germans.  The 
Third  Regiment  Missouri  Volunteers  had  Franz  Sigel 
for  its  colonel,  the  Second,  Henry  Bornstein.  Born  in 
Hamburg  in  1801,  he  entered  the  Austrian  army  as 
a  cadet,  served  in  the  Italian  campaign  in  1822, 
studied  medicine  in  Vienna,  was  editor,  actor,  and 
author  in  Germany,  Austria,  Italy,  and  France,  and 
finally  settled  in  St.  Louis  after  the  revolution  of 
1848,  where  he  established  a  successful  newspaper. 
Later  on  he  resumed  his  theatrical  undertaking, 
and  then  returned  to  Vienna,  where  he  corresponds 
with  both  English  and  German  newspapers  in  Europe 

21 


242  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

and  America.  The  Fourth  Missouri  Regiment  was 
commanded  by  Nicholas  "Schiittner,  a  native  of  Co- 
blenz,  a  soldier  in  the  Prussian  army,  and  an  emi 
grant  to  St.  Louis  in  1848.  One  of  General  Lyon's 
most  useful  allies  was  John  J.  Witzig,  born  in  Muhl- 
hausen  in  1821  ;  educated  at  Chalons,  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  chief-engineer  of  the  Paris  Orleans  Railroad, 
six  years  afterwards  going  to  Italy  as  chief  of  the 
construction  of  the  Milan  Turin  Railroad.  In  1849 
he  came  with  Cabet's  Icarians  to  Nauvoo,  where  he 
remained  until  1851,  when  he  came  to  St.  Louis  as 
superintendent  of  a  locomotive  works.  In  1857  he 
became  superintendent  of  the  North  Missouri,  in  1859 
of  the  Iron  Mountain  Railroad,  remaining  in  its  ser 
vice  until  1865.  He  died  in  1872,  member  of  a  large 
firm  of  architects  and  engineers.  Another  able  ally 
was  Captain  William  Jackson,  commander  of  the 
German  artillery  company.  His  real  name  was  Jac- 
quin.  Born  in  Metz  in  1821,  he  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1834,  served  three  years  in  the  Second 
United  States  Dragoons  in  the  Florida  and  Indian 
campaigns,  was  discharged  in  1837,  enlisted  in  1839 
in  the  Third  Infantry,  and  in  1844  in  the  Seventh, 
serving  under  General  Taylor  in  the  Mexican  war. 
Settled  in  St.  Louis,  he  organized  in  1852  a  company 
of  uhlans,  which  was  afterwards  changed  to  one  of 
dragoons.  In  1859  ne  became  captain  of  the  Mis- 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  243 

souri  artillery  company,  and  when  the  war  broke 
out  brought  his  guns  and  his  company  of  a  hundred 
men — all  Germans  except  eighteen  Frenchmen  and 
Americans — out  of  the  rebel  carnp  into  the  Union 
service.  He  was  captain  of  the  Second  Missouri 
Artillery  and  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Fifteenth  Mis 
souri.  One  of  the  captains  of  Sigel's  regiment  was 
Constantin  Blandowsky.  Born  in  Prussia,  on  the  bor 
der  of  Russian  Poland,  in  1821,  he  was  educated  at  the 
Polytechnic  School  in  Dresden,  served  in  the  French 
army  in  Algiers,  took  part  in  various  unsuccessful 
Polish  revolutions,  then  fought  in  Italy  against  Aus 
tria  and  in  the  Hungarian  army,  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1850,  and  later  to  St.  Louis.  He  died  on 
May  25,  1861,  of  wounds  received  in  the  attack  on 
Camp  Jackson,  and  was  buried  with  military  honors. 

The  work  done  by  the  German  soldiers  of  Missouri 
is  told  in  the  history  of  the  war,  but  the  names  of 
those  most  prominent  in  their  ranks  will  serve  as 
illustrations  of  their  fitness  for  the  new  task  laid  upon 
them,  and  of  their  loyalty  to  their  new  fatherland. 

Peter  Joseph  Osterhaus  was  born  in  Coblenz, 
studied  at  the  military  school  in  Berlin,  and  became 
an  officer  of  the  Prussian  army.  In  1849  he  came 
to  the  United  States,  settled  in  St.  Louis,  on  the  out 
break  of  the  civil  war  was  chosen  major  of  the  Sec 
ond  Missouri,  and  after  the  battle  of  Wilson's  Creek, 


244  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

colonel  of  the  Twelfth  Missouri ;  under  Fremont 
commanded  a  brigade,  at  Pea  Ridge  a  division,  and 
on  the  Qth  of  June,  1862,  was  made  a  brigadier- 
general.  He  was  assigned  the  command  of  a  division 
of  the  Thirteenth  Corps  at  Helena,  and  took  part  in 
the  capture  of  Arkansas  Post  on  January  13,  1863, 
and  in  the  subsequent  siege  of  Vicksburg.  In  the 
campaigns  in  Tennessee  and  Georgia  he  took  a  dis 
tinguished  part;  on  the  23d  July,  1864,  was  made 
a  major-general,  served  under  General  Sherman  in 
the  march  to  the  sea,  and  was  chief  of  staff  to  Gen 
eral  Canby  at  the  surrender  of  the  army  of  General 
Kirby  Smith,  in  May,  1865.  In  1866  he  was  ap 
pointed  American  consul  in  Lyons,  France. 

Franz  Hassendeubel  was  born  at  Gernsheim,  in 
Rhenish  Bavaria,  in  1817,  was  educated  at  Speier 
and  Munich,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1842,  and 
settled  in  St.  Louis  in  1844.  In  the  Mexican  war 
he  was  lieutenant  in  a  volunteer  battery,  and  later 
became  captain,  and  served  in  New  Mexico  to  the  end. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion  he  returned  with 
all  speed  from  Germany,  became  lieutenant-colonel 
of  Sigel's  Third  Missouri,  constructed  the  defences 
of  St.  Louis,  was  made  brigadier-general,  was  mor 
tally  wounded  at  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  and  died 
July  17,  1863. 

Of  the  Union  forces  engaged  at  the  battle  of  Wil- 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  245 

son's  Creek,  the  German  organizations  were — Oster- 
haus's  battalion,  First  Kansas  Infantry,  Colonel  Deitz- 
ler;  Third  Missouri,  Colonel  Franz  Sigel ;  Fifth  Mis 
souri,  Colonel  C.  E.  Salomon ;  Colonel  Henry  Born- 
stein's  regiment,  five  German  regiments  from  St. 
Louis,  Jefferson  City,  etc.,  a  light  battery  of  six  guns 
under  Lieutenants  Schaefer  and  Schutzenbach,  and 
two  batteries  of  eight  guns  under  Major  Backoff. 

The  Third  Regiment  of  Missouri  Volunteers  was 
organized  in  St.  Louis  by  Franz  Sigel  for  the  three 
months'  service,  and  took  part  in  three  battles  during 
that  time.  The  Fourth  Regiment  was  the  Black 
Yager  Regiment,  Colonel  Schlittner ;  the  Fifth  was 
also  a  German  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel  Salo 
mon.  Of  others  there  were  the  First  Cavalry,  Colo 
nel  Almstedt;  the  Second  Reserves,  Colonel  Kall- 
mann ;  the  Third,  Colonel  Fritz ;  the  Fourth,  Colonel 
Hundehausen  and  Colonel  Wesseling;  and  the  Fifth, 
Colonel  Stifel.  Of  the  three  years'  regiments  there 
were  the  Second,  Colonel  Laibold ;  the  Third,  Colo 
nel  Hequembourg ;  the  Fourth,  Colonel  Poten ;  the 
Twelfth,  Colonel  (afterwards  General)  Osterhaus  and 
Colonel  Wangelin ;  the  Fifteenth,  Colonel  Conrad  ; 
the  Seventeenth,  Colonel  Hassendeubel ;  the  Thirty- 
ninth,  Fortieth,  and  Forty-first,  under  Kutzner,  Weyde- 
meyer,  and  Von  Deutsch,  and  the  Fourth  Cavalry, 
organized  out  of  the  Fremont  and  the  Benton  Hussars, 

21* 


246  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

almost  entirely  German  in  its  rank  and  file,  although 
it  was  commanded  by  a  gallant  and  able  American, 
Colonel  Waring.  Von  Helmrich,  his  lieutenant-colo 
nel,  was  a  type  of  the  German  soldier. 

General  Sigel  himself  was  the  first  rallying-point 
of  the  Germans,  both  of  Missouri  and  the  Northwest. 
Born  in  Baden  in  1824,  educated  at  the  military  school 
at  Carlsruhe,  in  command  of  the  republican  troops 
and  minister  of  war  in  the  revolution  of  1848,  he  came 
to  the  Unrted  States  in  1850,  lived  in  New  York  until 
1858,  when  he  went  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  became  a 
teacher  in  the  German-American  Academy  and  editor 
of  a  military  journal.  When  the  Rebellion  broke  out 
he  raised  the  first  German  regiment;  and  that  old 
patriot,  Hecker,  came  with  his  sons  from  their  home 
in  Illinois,  enlisted  under  Sigel,  and  served  with  him 
until  Hecker  was  made  colonel  of  an  Illinois  regi- 
-ment.  From  Wisconsin  came  General  Salomon,  who 
became  colonel  of  the  Fifth  Missouri,  a  brigadier-gen 
eral,  and  commanded  a  division  in  Fremont's  army. 
Sigel's  later  services  are  part  of  the  general  history  of 
the  war  of  the  Rebellion. 

In  the  "  Geschichte  des  4-jahrigen  Biirgerkrieges 
in  d.  V.  S.,"  von  C.  Sander,  "  Hauptman  in  d.  k.  pr. 
Artillerie,"  Frankfort-am-Main,  Sauerlander,  1865,  it 
is  stated  that  of  the  forty-three  thousand  officers  of 
the  United  States  forces,  from  three  to  four  hundred 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  247 

only  had  been  trained  in  military  life  abroad ;  and 
their  services  were  interfered  with  by  the  jealousy 
of  the  native  citizens,  by  their  ignorance  of  the 
language,  and  of  the  new  conditions  of  a  war  in  a 
country  in  which  they  were  strangers. 

These  statements  are  mere  generalizations,  not 
based  on  any  precise  information,  and  the  best  reply 
to  them  is  found  in  the  facts  and  names  here  gathered 
together. 

Carl  Schurz  was  born  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
became  well  known  through  his  active  share  in  the 
flight  of  Kinkel,  gave  up  his  embassy  in  Spain  to 
be  a  general  of  volunteers,  and  was  a  member  of 
President  Hayes's  cabinet.  His  services  as  an  orator 
before  the  war  made  his  name  familiar  to  the  whole 
country,  and  his  return  to  civil  life  has  been  marked 
by  many  evidences  of  popular  esteem  and  affection. 
As  editor  of  a  series  of  books  on  our  early  German 
history  by  Kapp  and  Seidensticker,  he  has  done  good 
work,  and  in  his  return  to  private  life  he  has  again 
taken  the  place  which  he  has  so  well  earned  as  the 
type  of  the  German-American  citizen,  equally  loyal 
to  the  country  of  his  birth  and  that  of  his  adoption 
and  his  home,  and  alike  appreciated  in  both. 

In  Nebraska,  the  German  soldiers  did  good  service 
in  the  defence  of  the  borders  from  Indians,  in  the 
Second  Cavalry,  under  General  Sully;  and  in  one 


248  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

engagement  in  Dakota,  in  September,  1863,  the 
Indians,  numbering  two  thousand  warriors,  were 
defeated,  but  not  without  a  severe  loss.  When  the 
regiment  had  served  out  its  time,  its  veterans  were 
consolidated  in  an  independent  battalion  of  four 
companies,  and  assigned  to  duty  on  the  plains  with 
the  First  Nebraska  Cavalry.  In  the  summer  of  1864 
the  Seventh  Iowa  Cavalry  was  assigned  the  defence 
of  the  overland  post-route  from  Fort  Kearny  to  the 
borders, — the  First  Nebraska  Cavalry  and  a  com 
pany  of  regular  cavalry  continued  the  line,  and 
protected  the  country  from  attacks  by  the  Indians. 
The  raids  became  more  and  more  frequent  and 
bloody,  hundreds  of  homes  were  destroyed,  and 
many  settlers  and  their  families  killed  or  captured. 
The  local  government  organized  a  force  of  volun 
teers,  and  the  War  Department  strengthened  it  by 
such  aid  as  it  could  give,  and  thus  the  country  was 
saved  a  repetition  of  the  bloody  horrors  of  West 
Minnesota.  The  First  Veteran  Cavalry  Regiment 
was  one-half  German,  and  under  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Baiimer  proved  that  it  was  able  to  cope  successfully 
with  the  Indians.  Almost  in  sight  of  sixteen  thousand 
hostiles,  he  hanged  "  Black  Kettle,"  an  Indian  chief, 
convicted  by  a  court-martial  of  murder.  William 
Baiimer  was  born  in  Munster,  Prussia,  in  1826,  was 
educated  there  at  its  High  School,  and  was  by  turns 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  249 

carver  and  turner  in  wood,  architect,  and  railroad 
employe.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1852, 
served  three  years  in  the  Thirteenth  Infantry,  saw 
some  active  service,  worked  in  Cincinnati,  then  settled 
in  Guttenburg,  Iowa,  went  to  Dubuque,  where  he 
established  his  reputation  as  architect  and  builder, 
then  went  to  St.  Joseph,  Missouri ;  there  he  joined  a 
German  rifle  company,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebel 
lion  removed  to  Omaha,  joined  the  First  Nebraska, 
became  its  captain,  served  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and 
died  in  Omaha  in  1869.  His  name  is  perpetuated  by 
the  Baiimer  Post,  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  of 
Nebraska  City. 

New  Jersey  had  no  distinctive  German  regiments, 
although  the  Third  New  Jersey  Cavalry,  recruited  at 
Hoboken  and  Jersey  City,  was  largely  composed 
of  Germans;  but  German  companies  were  found  in 
its  regiments,  notably  K  of  the  First,  D  of  the  Sec 
ond,  E  of  the  Third,  A  of  the  Fourth,  and  G  and  L 
of  the  Second  Cavalry,  and  K  and  L  of  the  Third, 
an-d  batteries  A,*  B,  and  C  of  the  First  Artillery. 

During  the  campaign  on  the  Peninsula,  Hexamer's 
Battery  of  the  First  New  Jersey  Artillery  was  led 
into  action  by  the  Prince  de  Joinville,  then  serving  on 


*  Battery  A  was  entirely  German,  and  was  commanded  by  Captain 
Hexamer,  one  of  the  very  best  artillerists  in  the  war. 


250  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

General  McClellan's  staff,  and  the  prince,  in  his  capi 
tal  account  of  the  operations  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  speaks  in  high  terms  of  both  Hexamer 
and  his  first  lieutenant,  afterwards  major,  Woerner. 
Hexamer  and  Woerner  had  been  participants  in  the 
Baden  revolution  of  1848,  and  it  was  a  curious  acci 
dent  that  thus  brought  these  German  soldiers  under 
the  leadership  of  a  prince  of  the  House  of  Orleans,  all 
engaged  in  the  great  war  for  popular  government. 

General  George  W.  Mindil,  a  very  gallant  and 
distinguished  soldier,  commanded  both  the  Twenty- 
seventh  and  the  Thirty-third  New  Jersey  Regi 
ments,  the  former  a  nine  months'  organization.  Dur 
ing  the  war  he  held  several  brigade  commands  in 
different  corps  and  departments.  The  first  brigade 
he  commanded  was  in  the  Ninth  Corps,  in  January, 
1863,  and  it  consisted  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Massachu 
setts,  Forty-sixth  New  York,  Fiftieth  Pennsylvania, 
and  Twenty-seventh  New  Jersey.  In  May  and  June, 
1863,  he  had  a  brigade  in  General  S.  P.  Carter's  di 
vision,  in  Kentucky, — the  Twenty-seventh  New  Jersey, 
Forty-sixth  New  York,  Fiftieth  Pennsylvania,  Twenty- 
ninth  Massachusetts,  and  Second  East  Tennessee. 
In  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  his  command  com 
prised  the  Twenty-seventh,  Seventy-third,  and  One 
Hundred  and  Ninth  Pennsylvania,  One  Hundred  and 
Thirty-fourth  and  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fourth  New 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  2$  I 

York,  and  Thirty-third  New  Jersey.  This  brigade  he 
led  in  the  Knoxville  campaign,  in  the  campaign  and 
siege  of  Atlanta,  and  in  the  march  through  the  Caro- 
linas  from  Savannah ;  in  General  Sherman's  last  cam 
paign,  from  Goldsboro',  North  Carolina,  to  Johnston's 
surrender,  he  commanded  a  brigade  including  the 
Twenty-eighth  and  One  Hundred  and  Forty-seventh 
Pennsylvania,  the  Fifth,  Seventh,  Twenty-ninth,  and 
Sixty-sixth  Ohio.  After  the  review  of  the  armies  at 
Washington,  General  Mindil  was  assigned,  in  accord 
ance  with  his  brevet  rank,  to  the  command  of  a  di 
vision  composed  of  Eastern  regiments  of  Sherman's 
army,  encamped  in  front  of  Washington,  on  the  Vir 
ginia  side  of  the  Potomac,  whose  term  of  service  had 
still  a  year  to  run.  These  troops  were  held  in  readi 
ness  for  embarkation  to  the  Rio  Grande,  with  a  view 
to  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Mexico. 

The  Third  New  Jersey  Cavalry  (or  Thirty-sixth 
New  Jersey  Regiment)  was  mustered  into  service, 
February  10,  1864,  as  the  First  United  States  Hus 
sars.  Among  its  officers  were  Major  Siegfried  von 
Forstner,  Captains  Herzberg,  Schafer,  Knoblesdorf, 
and  Stoll,  Lieutenants  Stulpnagel,  Kramer,  Siebeth, 
Bulow,  and  Walpel. 

Joseph  Karge,  formerly  a  Prussian  officer,  was  lieu 
tenant-colonel  of  the  First  and  colonel  of  the  Second 
New  Jersey  Cavalry,  commanded  the  first  brigade  of 


252  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN   THE 

Grierson's  division  of  cavalry,  and  is  now  professor 
at  Princeton. 

Among  the  familiar  names  distinguished  in  the 
Rebellion  is  that  of  the  Roeblings,  whose  services  in 
war  have  been  overshadowed  by  their  brilliant  success 
in  civil  life ;  yet  their  share  was  no  small  one  in  the 
labors  and  the  glories  of  the  struggle  for  the  Union. 
Major  Washington  A.  Roebling  was  an  aide  on  Gen 
eral  Warren's  staff  during  the  entire  war. 

Captain  Sohm  as  an  artillerist,  and  General  Karge 
as  a  cavalry  officer,  and  Major  Von  Forstner  and 
Major  Allstrom  of  the  Third  New  Jersey  Cavalry, 
were  among  those  who  did  especial  service. 

Colonel  Wiebische  was  always  put  in  command  of 
the  skirmish-line  by  General  Kearny ;  he  was  killed 
at  Spottsylvania. 

Ohio  has  a  large  proportion  of  Germans  in  its 
borders,  and  from  them  have  come  many  soldiers. 
In  the  Mexican  war  Cincinnati  sent  three  German 
companies,  Columbus,  Dayton,  Hamilton,  each  two, 
and  the  Second  Ohio  Volunteers  was  called  the  Ger 
man  Regiment.  It  was  commanded  by  August  Moor, 
who  had  served  in  the  Florida  war,  and  who  served 
again  in  the  Rebellion.  When  Fort  Sumter  was  fired 
on,  three  German  infantry  companies  and  the  Wash 
ington  Dragoons  were  on  their  way  to  Washington 
the  day  the  first  call  for  troops  was  issued.  Two  Ger- 


WARS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.  2$$ 

man  regiments  were  soon  organized,  and  more  than 
a  third  of  the  soldiers  from  Ohio  were  Germans. 
There  were  eleven  German  regiments :  Ninth,  Colonel 
Kammerling;  Twenty-eighth,  Colonel  Moor;  Thirty- 
seventh,  'Colonel  Sieber;  Forty-seventh,  Colonel 
Porschner ;  Fifty-eighth,  Colonel  Bausenwein  ;  Sixty- 
seventh,  Colonel  Burstenbinder;  Seventy-fourth,  Colo 
nel  Von  Schrader;  One  Hundred  and  Sixth,  Colonel 
Tafel ;  One  Hundred  and  Seventh,  Colonel  Meyer ; 
One  Hundred  and  Eighth,  Colonel  Limberg;  One 
Hundred  and  Sixty-fifth,  Colonel  Bohlander;  Third 
Cavalry,  Colonel  Zahm;  three  batteries,  Hoffman's, 
Dilger's,  and  Markgraf  's.  The  German  general  offi 
cers  from  Ohio  were  Weitzel,  Kautz,  Moor,  Arn- 
men,  Von  Blessing,  Darr,  Giese,  Leister,  Meyer,  Von 
Schrader,  and  Ziegler. 

August  Moor,  colonel  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Ohio, 
was  born  in  Leipsic  in  1814,  came  to  this  country  in 
1833,  was  an  officer  of  the  Washington  Guard  of 
Philadelphia,  and  with  its  captain,  Koseritz,  took  part 
in  the  Seminole  war  in  1836  as  lieutenant  of  a  dragoon 
regiment.  In  the  Mexican  war  he  rose  from  captain 
to  colonel  of  the  Fourth  Ohio,  and  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Rebellion  was  made  colonel  of  the  Twenty-eighth 
Ohio,  the  second  German  regiment,  and  became  a 
brigadier-general  as  a  reward  for  his  gallant  service. 

On   the    1 3th   of   June,    1861,  the   Twenty-eighth 


22 


254  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

Ohio  was  accepted,  with  August  Moor  as  its 
colonel.  It  took  part  in  the  battles  of  Carnifex 
Ferry  and  New  River,  at  Princeton  and  South  Moun 
tain,  at  Antietam,  Droop  Mountain,  and  Piedmont, 
where  it  bore  the  brunt  of  the  engagement,  and 
received  from  General  Hunter,  as  it  had  from  General 
Averill,  the  highest  praise.  Another  of  its  old  gen 
erals,  Cox,  gave  it  unstinted  commendation.  The 
story  of  Moor's  life,  told  by  H.  A.  Ratterman  in  a 
volume  reprinted  from  the  Deutsche  Pionier,  is  inter 
esting  in  itself,  and  as  another  illustration  of  the 
service  rendered  to  the  United  States  by  its  German 
soldiers.  The  son  of  a  royal  officer,  Mohr,  a  cadet  at 
Tharand,  a  political  prisoner  and  an  exile  for  his  love 
of  liberty,  he  came  to  Baltimore  in  1833,  under  a 
promise  never  to  return  to  his  native  country;  from 
this  he  was  released,  when  he  returned  on  a  visit  in 
1859.  In  Philadelphia  he  met  Koseritz,  a  fiery  spirit, 
who  had  just  escaped  death  for  his  share  in  the 
rebellion  in  Hanover,  and  there  Mohr  joined  the 
Washington  Guard,  organized  in  November,  1835. 
In  1837,  Koseritz  and  Moor  raised  a  company  of 
dragoons  for  the  Florida  war.  At  its  close  he  found 
in  New  Orleans  fellow-Germans,  Roselius,  Rost, 
Richter,  Schiiebing,  Liitzenberg,  and  helped  to  or 
ganize  a  military  company,  but  soon  moved  to  St. 
Louis,  where  he  married.  His  eldest  daughter  be- 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  2$$ 

came  the  wife  of  General  Weitzel ;  the  mother, 
too,  was  a  Rhinelander.  Removing  to  Cincinnati,  he 
helped  to  organize  a  German  military  company,  soon 
followed  by  several  others,  and  with  these  he  raised 
a  German  regiment  for  service  in  the  Mexican  war. 
Its  story  is  told  by  one  of  its  officers,  an  old  Prussian 
hussar,  in  a  little  book  published  in  Halle :  "  Zirckel's 
Diary  of  Service  with  the  Fourth  Ohio." 

Von  Blessing  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Ohio,  Degen- 
feld  of  the  Twenty-sixth,  Aug.  Dotze  of  the  Eighth 
Ohio  Cavalry,  Alex,  von  Schrader  of  the  Seventy- 
fourth  Ohio,  Seidel  of  the  Third  Ohio  Cavalry, 
SondersdorfF  of  the  Ninth  Ohio,  and  Tafel  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Sixth  Ohio  were  among  those 
whose  services  are  worth  remembering. 

General  August  Willich  was  born  in  Gorzyn,  in 
East  Prussia,  in  1810,  of  an  old  noble  family;  his 
father  had  been  captain  in  a  hussar  regiment.  As 
a  child,  the  son,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  became 
a  member  of  the  family  of  Schleiermacher,  the 
famous  theologian, — a  connection  by  marriage.  At 
twelve  he  was  sent  to  the  cadet  school  at  Potsdam. 
In  1828,  after  graduating  at  the  military  school  in 
Berlin,  he  became  an  officer  of  an  artillery  regiment, 
and  in  1841,  captain.  A  Socialist  Democrat,  he 
learned  the  trade  of  a  carpenter  in  his  leisure  hours, 
and,  leaving  the  service,  soon  took  a  foremost  rank 


256  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

in  the  revolution  of  1848.  In  1853  ne  came  to  the 
United  States  with  the  idea  of  organizing  a  force  here 
to  lead  against  Hamburg  and  Germany.  He  found 
means  of  livelihood  in  the  navy-yard  at  Brooklyn, 
then  was  appointed  to  the  Coast  Survey,  and  finally 
became  editor  of  the  German  Republican,  of  Cincin 
nati,  where  he  was  living  when  the  Rebellion  broke 
out  He  enlisted  in  the  First  Ohio,  became  its  adju 
tant,  then  major  of  the  Ninth  Ohio,  and  later,  colonel 
of  the  Thirty-second  (First  German)  Indiana ;  was 
made  a  brigadier-general  after  Shiloh,  when  his  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  Von  Trebra,  became  colonel  of  the 
regiment.  He  died  January  23,  1878. 

Christopher  Degenfeld  was   born    in    Germany  in 

1824,  and  trained  there  as  a  soldier.     He  was  major 
of  the  Twenty-sixth  Ohio  Volunteers,  and  afterwards 
captain    of  the   Twelfth   Ohio    Cavalry.     His   severe 
wounds  obliged  him  to  retire,  and  his  life  was  sad 
dened  by  his   suffering,  until   his   death,  in  his  fifty- 
fourth  year,  in  Sandusky. 

Captain  Hermann  Dettweiler  was  born  in  Baden  in 

1825,  and  was  a  soldier  in  its  revolutionary  army.     He 
served  in  the  Sixth  Kentucky  until  his  wounds  obliged 
him  to  leave  the  field.     He  died  in  Louisville  on  the 
nth  of  September,  1878. 

Battery  A,  First  West  Virginia  Artillery,  Captain 
Furst,  of  Wheeling,  was  composed  of  Germans. 


WARS  OS    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Wisconsin  had  for  its  war  governor  Edward  Salo 
mon,  born  in  Halberstadt,  Prussia,  in  1828.  He  came 
to  Wisconsin  in  1849,  and  was  by  turns  school-teacher, 
county  surveyor,  court  clerk,  lawyer,  and  governor. 
The  Ninth  Wisconsin  was  raised  by  Colonel — later 
General — Frederick  Salomon.  Born  in  Prussia  in 
1826,  engineer,  architect,  and  soldier  in  Germany,  he 
too  came  to  the  United  States.  He  first  served  in  a 
Missouri  regiment,  but  returned  to  organize  a  Ger 
man  regiment  in  Wisconsin.  His  companies  were, 
among  other  striking  titles,  The  Sheboygan  Tigers, 
The  Sigel  Guard,  The  Wisconsin  Tigers,  and  The  Tell 
Sharp-shooters.  When  the  colonel  became  a  briga 
dier-general,  the  regiment  was  commanded  by  Colo 
nel  Jacobi  and  by  Colonel  Charles  E.  Salomon,  the 
third  and  eldest  brother. 

Colonel  Charles  E.  Salomon  was  born  in  Germany 
in  1822.  He  was  educated  as  a  surveyor,  served  as 
a  volunteer  in  the  Pioniers,  and  in  1843  became  an 
officer  of  that  corps.  He  was  employed,  too,  in  rail 
road  and  other  engineering  work.  In  1849  he  came 
West ;  in  1850  went  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  was  elected 
county  surveyor, — defeating  Ulysses  S.  Grant  in  the 
contest  for  the  popular  vote, — county  engineer,  and 
held  a  variety  of  other  technical  offices  in  the  city's 
service.  He  organized  and  was  colonel  of  the  Fifth 
Missouri  Volunteers,  and  when  it  was  mustered  out 

22* 


258  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

took  command  of  the  Ninth  Wisconsin,  winning  the 
brevet  of  brigadier-general.  Returning  to  civil  life, 
he  was  frequently  employed  by  the  United  States, 
and  died  on  February  8,  1 880. 

The  Twenty-sixth  Wisconsin  was  another  German 
regiment,  organized  at  Camp  Sigel,  Milwaukee,  and 
commanded  by  Colonel  Jacobi  and  General  Winkler. 
It  served  in  the  Eleventh  Corps,  and  shared  in  its 
varying  fortunes  in  the  East  and  its  brilliant  suc 
cesses  under  Sherman.  The  Twenty-seventh  was 
also  a  German  regiment,  under  Colonel  Conrad  Krez ; 
so  were  the  Thirty-fourth,  under  Colonel  Fritz  An- 
neke,  and  the  Thirty-fifth,  under  Colonel  Henry  Orff. 
Gustav  von  Deutsch  commanded  a  company  of  cav 
alry  from  Wisconsin,  which  became  Company  M  of 
the  Fourth  Missouri  Cavalry.  The  Second  Battery, 
Wisconsin  Artillery,  was  also  a  German  organization. 
The  Fritz  Anneke  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Wisconsin 
was  also  the  author  of  the  "  Zweite  Freiheitsampf," 
published  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  in  1861. 

.  Rudolf  Aschmann,  who  was  captain  of  the  First  U. 
S.  Sharp-shooters,  gives  an  interesting  account  of  that 
organization  in  his  modest  little  book,  "  Drei  Jahre  in 
der  Potomac  Armee  oder  Eine  Schweizer  Schiitzen 
Compagnie  in  Nord-Amerikanischen  Kriege"  (Rich- 
tersweil,  1 865 ,  pp.  228).  Organized  by  a  Swiss,  Caspar 
Trepp,  a  native  of  Splugen,  Canton  Graubiinden,  who 


WARS   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES.  2$$ 

-afterwards  fell  at  Mine  Run,  in  December,  1863,  and 
composed  largely  of  German-Swiss  and  Germans,  it 
was  at  first  a  company,  but  soon  grew  to  be  a  regiment, 
commanded  at  the  outset  by  an  American,  H.  Berdan, 
with  an  officer  of  the  regular  army,  F.  Mears,  as  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  to  whom  it  owed  its  subsequent  suc 
cess.  One  company  came  from  Michigan,  another 
from  New  Hampshire,  but  the  others  from  New  York 
were  largely  made  up  of  Germans, — in  one  company, 
out  of  one  hundred  and  six  men,  eighty  were  Swiss,  the 
rest  Germans,  and  the  regiment  was  full  of  men  of  curi 
ous  antecedents.  Trepp  became  major  of  the  regiment, 
and  under  him  it  did  effective  service,  in  Porter's  di 
vision,  in  the  Peninsula  campaign,  in  the  Second  Bull 
Run,  and  at  Antietam.  Trepp  became  lieutenant- 
colonel,  and  the  command  of  the  regiment  fell  to  him, 
to  its  great  satisfaction,  and  it  was  assigned  to  Sum- 
ner's  corps  in  the  Fredericksburg  campaign.  When 
Hooker  relieved  Burnside,  two  regiments  of  sharp 
shooters  were  consolidated,  and  Berdan,  resuming  the 
command,  was  assigned  to  Sickles's  Third  Corps.  In 
1863,  in  April,  the  Swiss  soldiers  were  delighted  with 
a  visit  from  Colonel  Fogliardy,  of  the  Swiss  army. 
At  Chancellorsville  the  division  commander,  General 
Whipple,  was  killed,  and  the  regiment  suffered  heavy 
losses.  At  Gettysburg  it  was  also  hardly  tried.  Colo 
nel  Trepp's  death  at  Mine  Run  was  a  heavy  blow  to 


260  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

his  men,  and  his  loss  was  greatly  felt.  Assigned  to 
Hancock's  corps,  the  regiment  was  tried  in  the  Wilder 
ness  campaign;  Aschmann's  company,  in  eighteen 
engagements,  was  reduced  to  twelve  men  on  its  final 
return  to  New  York,  and  its  division  commander, 
Hayes,  fell  too.  Rilliet  de  Constant,  an  old  soldier, 
formerly  in  the  Neapolitan  and  English  service,  with 
Colonel  Trepp,  and  later  on  a  sergeant  in  the  Four 
teenth  Infantry,  at  Spottsylvania  Court-House  pluckily 
turned  and  served  three  rebel  guns  against  the  enemy 
with  great  effect.  He  was  made  brigade  adjutant. 
The  advance  to  Richmond  and  the  siege  of  Peters- 

o 

burg  were  the  closing  tasks  of  the  Swiss  sharp-shooters. 
On  the  I  Qth  of  August,  1864,  the  enlistment  of  the 
regiment  ended,  after  some  hard  knocks  in  the  opera 
tions  around  Deep  Bottom,  in  which  Captain  Asch- 
mann  lost  his  leg.  Thus  he  experienced  at  the  close 
of  his  service,  as  at  the  outset,  the  hospitality  of  the 
Refreshment  Saloon  in  Philadelphia,  and  then  was 
taken  to  the  officers'  hospital  in  Camac's  Woods,  by 
the  volunteer  ambulance  corps  organized  by  the 
Philadelphia  firemen.  In  September  he  was  on  his 
crutches,  in  October  again  in  New  York,  where  he 
received  an  honorable  discharge,  which  was  followed 
by  a  pension  for  life. 

Of   the   German   soldiers   in   the    Rebellion,   those 
mentioned    in  these  pages   may  well  be  considered 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  26 1 

typical  examples.  These  are  but  a  small  proportion 
of  the  great  number  who  served  with  equal  patriot 
ism.  It  is  not  possible  in  any  brief  way  to  give 
a  detailed  account  of  all  of  those  who  were  for 
tunate  enough  to  be  distinguished  in  their  special 
services.  These  pages  are  only  a  sketch  of  the  active 
share  taken  in  every  part  of  the  country  by  its 
German  citizens,  and  perhaps  some  more  diligent 
student  may  yet  complete  the  picture  by  an  ex 
haustive  study  of  the  subject.  Imperfect  as  it  is, 
with  all  its  omissions  and  shortcomings,  it  will,  how 
ever,  serve  to  show  that  the  Germans  did  their  share 
in  the  war  for  the  Union,  alike  in  numbers,  in 
courage,  in  endurance,  in  zeal,  and  in  all  the  qualities 
that  make  the  good  soldier  and  the  good  citizen. 
They  may  fairly  point  with  pride  to  the  record  of 
their  achievements  and  claim  for  them  the  reward 
of  duty  well  done.  Both  those  who  brought  with 
them  the  training,  skill,  and  experience  acquired  in 
Germany,  and  those  who  had  as  part  of  their  in 
heritance  their  national  qualities,  deserve  to  be 
remembered;  this  will  have  been,  at  least  in  part, 
successfully  done,  if  their  names  be  for  even  a 
little  while  rescued  from  forgetfulness  and  oblivion. 

When,  in  1830,  the  Germans  fled  from  oppression 
at  home  to  America,  they  took  various  directions. 
Rachnitz  and  Scherf  led  them  to  Texas ;  Bromme  urged 


262  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

them  to  settle  in  Florida.  Saxony  and  Thiiringen  or 
ganized  joint-stock  companies  to  secure  new  homes 
in  the  West  for  their  overcrowded  populations.  Duden 
led  the  largest  number  to  Missouri,  and  his  book  set 
ting  forth  the  charms  of  that  State  is  as  attractive  as 
Goethe's  "  Italy."  Korner  and  Kopfli  showed  the  ad 
vantages  of  Illinois,  and  Gerke  was  their  literary  advo 
cate.  Arkansas  and  Michigan  were  next  chosen,  and 
later  on,  Texas,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin  received  their 
share  of  German  emigrants.  Many  educated  people 
joined  in  these  settlements,  and  they  were  especially 
tempted  by  the  plan  of  associated  enterprises.  In 
1833  an  emigrant  society  was  established  at  Giessen, 
in  which  there  were  united  men  of  university  training 
from  Hesse,  the  Main,  Westphalia,  and  the  Saxon 
countries ;  but  the  science  and  the  means  of  its  mem 
bers  could  not  prevent  failure,  in  spite,  too,  of  the  old 
bell  brought  from  home  to  keep  alive  patriotic  feeling, 
and  the  telescope  set  up  in  an  old  block-house  near 
St.  Louis.  The  unity  of  action  failed  either  at  the 
outset  or  soon  after  it  was  put  to  the  test.  "  Teu- 
tonia,"  in  Columbiana  County,  Ohio ;  Keil's  colony, 
in  Iowa;  Pastor  Stephani's,  at  Wittenberg,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio ;  the  Free  German  Society,  in 
Wyoming  and  Lycoming  Counties,  with  seventeen 
thousand  acres,  bought  in  1841;  the  German  So 
ciety  of  Industry,  in  McKean  County,  with  forty 


WARS   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.  263 

thousand  acres,  bought  in  1843  ;  the  German  Protes 
tant  Society,  in  Warren  County,  with  ten  thousand 
acres,  all  failed  in  Pennsylvania,  and  one  in  Par- 
kersburg,  Virginia,  followed  the  same  course,  after 
brief  trials. 

The  German  Catholic  Society,  with  ten  thousand 
acres  in  Warren  County,  and  the  German  Catholic 
Union  Bond  Society,  with  thirty-five  thousand  acres, 
and  others  in  Hermann  and  Gutenberg,  Texas,  suc 
ceeded  far  better.  Plans  for  the  establishment  of 
a  German  State,  to  be  carved  out  of  the  Territories  in 
the  West,  of  course  received  no  favor  in  Congress,  but 
the  discussion  led  to  the  creation  of  German  societies, 
newspapers,  and  other  organs  intended  to  guide  and 
stimulate  public  opinion  in  its  behalf.  In  1835-36 
efforts  were  made  in  Pennsylvania  to  found  a  German 
city,  with  schools,  an  university,  and  all  the  attractions 
of  the  Fatherland.  Northampton,  Schuylkill,  Berks, 
Bucks,  Montgomery,  York,  and  Lancaster  followed  the 
example  set  in  Lehigh,  and  formed  associations  to 
secure  equality  to  the  German  language  in  all  instruc 
tion,  in  courts,  and  even  in  the  legislative  proceedings. 
In  1837  six  States  sent  forty  delegates  to  Pittsburg  to 
formulate  a  plan  for  the  German  State,  but  it  ended  in 
disputes  and  dissensions.  In  1838  a  second  conven 
tion  was  held  in  Philadelphia,  with  twenty-eight  dele 
gates,  but  the  only  result  was  to  invest  its  fund  of 


264  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN  THE 

three  thousand  dollars  in  a  German  school  for 
teachers  in  Phillipsburg,  which  two  years  later  was 
sold  for  a  brewery.  Philadelphians  established  a  col 
ony  on  twelve  thousand  acres  in  Gasconade  County, 
Missouri,  where  the  town  of  Hermann  still  perpet 
uates  the  old  faith  in  a  German  community.  Cities, 
schools,  newspapers,  thoroughly  German  in  language 
and  sentiment,  in  thought  and  action,  are  now  found 
throughout  the  United  States ;  but  they  are  the  natural 
expression  of  the  thousands  who  make  part  of  the 
nation,  and  do  not  depend  for  their  existence  on  arti 
ficial  efforts.  Music,  art,  science,  gymnastics,  military 
exercises,  all  unite  the  Germans,  but  in  no  wise  sep 
arate  them  from  their  fellow-citizens. 

The  German  religious  associations  have  made  many 
successful  colonies,  but  mostly  on  a  small  scale.  As 
early  as  1732,  Schaferstadt,  now  Sheaferstown,  was 
settled  by  German  Jews ;  and  the  various  Christian 
sects,  and  especially  the  dissidents  from  the  older  col 
onies,  have  preserved  and  perpetuated  their  peculiar 
dogmas  and  practices  in  all  parts  of  the  Union. 
The  orthodox  Germans  have  largely  united  with  the 
English-speaking  churches  of  the  same  theological 
caste.  In  North  Carolina  hardly  a  trace  is  left  of  the 
early  German  settlers, — the  names  of  people  and 
places,  as  well  as  their  language,  have  been  anglicized, 
often  almost  past  recognition.  From  its  western 


WARS   OF   TP1E    UNITED   STATES.  26$ 

borders  its  German  settlers  sent  emigrants  to  the 
South  and  Southwest,  where,  in  Arkansas,  they  met 
the  colonies  established  in  1833  by  Klingelhoffer  and 
Grolmann.  In  Tennessee,  "  Wartburg"  was  settled  in 
1846  by  the  purchase  of  two  hundred  thousand  acres 
for  a  Catholic  colony,  headed  by  its  pastor.  The 
Protestant  emigrants  found  in  that  State  a  Lutheran 
synod,  with  eighty  congregations,  established  in  1819 
by  the  German  settlers  from  North  Carolina.  In 
Illinois,  as  early  as  1814,  German  colonies  were  estab 
lished,  and  Teutopolis  and  Belleville  are  the  centres 
of  much  German  culture  and  industry  of  that  and 
later  emigration.  Texas  still  points  to  the  remains  of 
the  attempt  to  colonize  in  1844  by  an  aristocratic  as 
sociation  of  German  noblemen,  and  in  two  or  three 
years  the  three  thousand  Germans,  brought  under  the 
most  tempting  promises,  were  scattered  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  bare  existence.  Princes  and  titled  persons  disap 
peared  under  a  great  load  of  obloquy,  but  the  work 
ing-people  remained,  united  with  others,  and  formed 
successful  establishments,  to  which,  from  time  to  time, 
have  been  joined  the  large  number  that  make  a  very 
prosperous  part  of  the  population. 

The  Germans  maintain  their  old  military  spirit 
intact,  and  on  every  occasion  have  responded  promptly 
to  the  call  for  soldiers  for  the  defence  of  their  new 
fatherland.  In  the  war  with  Mexico,  the  first  troops 

23 


266  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN   THE 

to  volunteer  in  St.  Louis  were  Germans,  and  St. 
Charles  and  Hermann  sent  their  proportion.  In  Ken 
tucky  a  German  raised  the  first  company.  In  New 
Orleans  six  hundred  Germans  volunteered.  In  Cin 
cinnati  the  first  regiment  to  be  organized  was  Ger 
man.  From  all  the  States  where  the  Germans  were 
established  came  soldiers  in  large  numbers,  while  the 
Anglo-Saxon  citizens  were  still  discussing  the  right 
or  wrong  of  the  war,  for  the  German  spirit  submitted 
itself  to  the  government  as  the  final  authority.  The 
war  over,  the  Germans  were  foremost  in  condemning 
the  measure  which  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  move 
ment  then  begun  for  the  extension  of  slavery,  and 
their  vote  and  voice  were  felt  and  heard  in  the  agita 
tion  that  preceded  the  final  outbreak  of  the  Great 
Rebellion.  Then  the  Germans  again  showed  their 
readiness  to  become  soldiers  in  defence  and  support 
of  the  Union  and  the  nation,  and  their  efforts  in 
the  field  and  at  home  were  incessant  until  the  final 
triumph  of  their  cause  was  secured.  Peace  re-estab 
lished,  the  Germans  have  continued  to  add  to  the 
strength  and  wealth  of  the  country  by  a  large  and 
steady  stream  of  emigration,  and  without  in  the  least 
ceasing  to  be  good  American  citizens,  they  have 
made  German  thought,  German  customs,  German 
virtues  at  home  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 
The  German  element  in  all  social  respects  is  seen 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  267 

at  its  best  in  all  rural  sections,  and  the  absence 
of  any  political  partisanship  among  or  against  the 
Germans  is  the  best  proof  of  the  recognition  of  their 
right  to  citizenship. 

There  were,  of  course,  on  the  surface,  many  Ger 
mans  who  rose  early  to  a  dangerous  eminence,  and 
some  ended  their  career  with  anything  but  credit  to 
themselves  or  their  countrymen,  but  these  were  soon 
thinned  out  by  the  actual  experiences  of  real  war. 
As  they  disappeared,  their  places  were  taken  by 
men  of  merit,  and  the  German  soldier  earned  the 
rank  which  his  own  achievements  had  gained  for 
him.  It  was  in  the  ranks,  and  as  non-commissioned 
officers,  that  their  steadiness,  courage,  discipline,  en 
durance,  and  other  manly  virtues  were  especially 
marked.  Courage  is  not  such  a  rare  virtue,  but  the 
capacity  to  be  a  good  soldier  in  the  long  and  weary 
months  of  inaction,  in  the  depression  incidental  to 
defeat,  in  the  license  that  follows  victory,  in  the  try 
ing  hours  of  imprisonment  and  sickness, — this  was 
the  marked  characteristic  of  the  German  soldier, 
and  it  shone  out  in  those  regiments  and  companies 
in  which  the  mass  was  made  up  of  impetuous  and 
undisciplined  Americans,  unaccustomed  to  obedience 
and  self-sacrifice.  Here  and  there  a  German  was 
found  who  steadied  the  others  by  his  example,  some 
times  without  a  word,  occasionally  by  a  little  en- 


268  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

couragement,  always  by  his  manly  and  soldierly 
qualities. 

The  literature  of  the  war  is  largely  made  up  of  the 
heroic  achievements  of  those  who  gained  promotion 
and  distinction,  but  there  is  also  found  in  regimental 
histories  and  in  the  dry  annals  of  State  records  the 
occasional  mention  of  some  special  gallantry  of  the 
enlisted  man.  The  story  of  his  part  in  the  hardships 
and  the  successes  of  the  war  remains  to  be  told, — it 
cannot,  perhaps,  in  view  of  the  vast  number  of  sol 
diers,  ever  be  fully  told, — but  wherever  the  German 
soldier  served,  there  he  made  his  mark  by  char 
acteristic  virtues,  the  distinguishing  traits  of  his 
nationality,  alike  in  his  native  country  and  in  his  new 
home. 

The  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White,  lately  President  of 
Cornell  University,  and  formerly  United  States  Min 
ister  to  Germany,  gave  an  admirable  summary  of 
the  intellectual  debt  of  the  United  States  to  Ger 
many  in  his  address,  delivered  October  4,  1884,  at 
the  centennial  celebration  of  the  German  Society  of 
New  York.  The  title  is  the  key  to  the  note  he 
strikes.  It  is  entitled  "  Some  Practical  Influences 
of  German  Thought  upon  the  United  States,"  and  it 
is  full  of  suggestive  ideas  and  profound  thoughts. 
He  refers  to  the  Revolution,  when  "  the  organizing 
power  of  Steuben,  the  devotion  of  Kalb,  and  the 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  269 

rude  courage  of  Herckheimer  were  precious  in  es 
tablishing  the  liberties  of  the  country;"  to  the  recog 
nition  of  the  infant  republic  by  Frederick  the  Great, 
first  of  all  European  rulers ;  and  to  the  "  earnestness 
of  German-American  thinkers  so  long  as  the  strug 
gle  was  carried  on  with  the  pen,  and  the  bravery  of 
German-American  soldiers  when  it  was  carried  on 
by  the  sword."  He  pays  fitting  tribute  to  the  words 
and  deeds  of  sympathy  that  came  from  Germany 
in  the  fearful  darkness  and  distress  of  the  civil 
war,  when  "  German  scholars  and  thinkers,  men  like 
Theodore  Mommsen  and  his  compeers,  proclaimed 
their  detestation  of  slavery  and  their  hope  for  the 
American  Union."  In  another  place  he  shows  the 
reflex  effect  of  the  great  work  done  by  a  German- 
American  as  orator,  soldier,  and  statesman,  speaking 
of  Carl  Schurz  as  "  first  of  all  the  recent  American 
thinkers,"  when  he  tells  us  that  Bismarck  said  to 
him,  "  As  a  German  I  am  proud  of  the  success 
of  Carl  Schurz."  He  closes  in  an  earnest  hope  that 
"the  healthful  elements  of  German  thought  will  aid 
powerfully  in  evolving  a  future  for  this  land  purer 
in  its  politics,  nobler  in  its  conception  of  life,  more 
beautiful  in  the  bloom  of  art,  more  precious  in  the 
fruitage  of  character."  What  the  Germans  have  al 
ready  done  in  and  for  the  country  is  the  best  assur 
ance  that  this  fervent  prayer  will  be  granted.  To 

23* 


2/0  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER. 

show  their  share  as  soldiers  in  the  wars  of  the  United 
States  is  at  least  a  justification  of  the  right  and  duty 
cast  upon  them  to  see  that,  so  far  as  in  them  lies, 
neither  from  within  nor  without  shall  any  injury  befall 
the  republic. 


GERMAN   OFFICERS 

OF    THE 

REVOLUTIONARY    ARMY, 


GENERAL  OFFICERS. 
De  Kalb,  John,  maj.-gen.,  1777. 
Steuben,  F.  W.  A.,  maj.-gen.,  1778. 
De  Woedtke,  Frederick  William,  brig.-gen.,  1776. 
Muhlenberg,  T.  P.  G.,  brig.-gen.,  1777. 
Weedon,  George,  brig.-gen.,  1777. 
Weisenfels,  F.,  lieut.-col.  com.  4th  N.  Y.,  1779. 
Ziegler,  D.,  capt.  1st  Penna.,  1778. 

GERMAN  BATTALION. 
Weltener,  Ludwick,  lieut.-col.,  1776. 
Burchart,  D.,  maj.,  1777. 
Bunner,  J.,  capt.,  1776. 
Boyer,  P.,  capt,  1777. 
Boetzel,  Charles,  capt.,  1777. 
Rice,  William,  capt.,  1778. 
Hubley,  Bernard,  capt.,  1778. 
Myers,  Chr.,  capt.,  1778. 
Boyer,  Mich.,  capt.,  1778. 
Schrauder,  Ph.,  capt.-Heut,  1778. 
Weidman,  John,  lieut,  1777. 
Sugart,  Martin,  lieut.,  1777. 
Gremeth,  Jacob,  lieut.,  1778. 
Cramer,  Jacob,  lieut.,  1778. 

271 


2/2  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

Swartz,  Godfrey,  lieut.,  1778. 
Young,  Marcus,  lieut.,  1778. 
Morgan,  David,  lieut.,  1778. 
Weidman,  John,  ens.,  1777. 
Shrupp,  Henry,  ens.,  1777. 
Desenderfer,  David,  ens.,  1778. 
Spech,  Henry,  ens.,  1778. 
Raboldt,  Jacob,  ens.,  1778. 
Glickner,  Ch.,  ens.,  1778. 
Prue,  William,  ens.,  1778. 
Hehn,  Henry,  ens.,  1779. 

INDEPENDENT  CORPS. 
Schott,  John  Paul,  capt.,  1776. 
Selim,  Anthony,  capt.,  1776. 

INVALID  REGIMENT. 
Nicola,  Lewis,  col.,  1777. 
Woelpper,  David,  capt.,  1778. 

•MARECHAUSEE  LIGHT  DRAGOONS. 
Van  Heer,  Barthol.,  capt.,  1778. 
Manaeke,  Christ.,  lieut.,  1778. 
Maitinger,  Jac.,  lieut.,  1778. 
Struebing,  Phil.,  lieut.,  1778. 

ARMAND'S  LEGION,  CAVALRY. 
Markle,  Chas.,  capt.,  1778. 
Schaffner,  George,  capt.,  1778. 
Seibert,  Henry,  lieut.,  1778. 
Schwartz,  Godfried,  lieut.,  1778. 
Segern,  Fred.,  lieut.,  1778. 
Riedel,  Henry,  ens.,  1778. 


WARS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.  2/3 

REGULAR  ARMY. 

Bauman,  Sebastian,  maj.-com't.  Art.,  1778. 
Kalteisen,  Michael,  capt.  Art.,  1794. 
Muhlenberg,  Henry,  lieut.  Art.,  1794. 
Ziegler,  David,  capt.  ist  Inf.,  1784. 
Strubing,  Philip  (Van  Heer's  Corps),  capt.,  bv't,  1784. 


The  following  officers   of  the   regular  army  were 
described  as  born  in  Germany : 

Adam,  Emil,  Alton  Yagers,  1861 ;  capt.  9th   111.,   1861 ;  maj.    H4th 

111.,  1865;  capt.  5th  U.  S.  Cav.,  1870. 
Adolphus,  Philip,  Prussia ;  surg.,  1861-65  ;  Md. 
Axt,  Godfrey  H.  T.,  Germany;  surg.  2Oth  N.  Y.  Vols. ;  U.  S.  A., 

1867. 
Balder,  Christian,  enl.  U.  S.  A.,  May  12,  1857;   ist  lieut.  25th  Inf., 

1862. 
Bendire,  Charles,  enl.  U.  S.  A.,  1854;  capt.   1st  Cav.,  1873;  retired 

1886. 
Bentzoni,  Charles,  enl.  U.  S.  A.,  1857;  col.  56th  U.  S.  Col.  Troops, 

1865;  capt.  26th  Inf.,  1866. 

Clous,  John  W.,  enl.  U.  S.  A.,  1857;  capt.  24th  Inf.,  1867. 
Conrad,  Joseph,  capt.  3d  Mo.,  1861  ;  col.  I5th  Mo.,  1862;  capt.  nth 

Inf.,  1869;  retired  as  col.,  1882. 

Crone,  L.  E.,  22d  Mass.,  1861 ;  capt.  42d  Inf.,  1866;  retired  1870. 
Decker,  Th.,  4th  Art.,  1875;  2d  lieut.  24th  Inf.,  1879. 
De  Gress,  Jacob  C.,  capt.  6th  Mo.  Cav. ;  capt.  9th  U.  S.  Cav.,  1867: 

retired  1870. 

Ebstein,  F.  H.  E.,  enl.  U.  S.  A.,  1864;  capt.  2ist  Inf.,  1885. 
Eggenmeyer,  A.,  ist  lieut.  I2th  Inf.;  killed  June  i,  1864. 
Falck,  William,  enl.  1858;  capt.  2d  Inf.,  1866;  retired  1883. 


2/4  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

Freudenberg,  C.  G.,  capt.  520!  N.  Y.,  1861 ;  capt.  I4th  Inf.,  1869;  re 
tired  as  lieut.-col.,  1877. 

Fuger,  F.,  enl.  4th  Art.,  1856;   1st  lieut.,  1865. 

Gaebel,  F.,  ist  lieut.  45th  Inf.,  1866. 

Gardener,  Corn.,  2d  lieut.  iQth  Inf.,  1879. 

Gerlach,  William,  enl.  1856;   ist  lieut.  3d  Inf.,  1879. 

Goldman,  H.  J.,  2d  lieut.  5th  Cav.,  1877. 

Green,  John,  enl.  July  I,  1846;  maj.  1st  Cav.,  1868 ;•  lieut.-col.  2d 
Cav.,  1885. 

Grossman,  F.  E.,  2d  lieut.  7th  Inf.,  1863;  capt.  I7th  Inf.,  1871. 

Gunther,  S.,  enl.  ist  Cav.,  1855;  capt.  4th  Cav.,  1870;  retired 
1884. 

Heger,  A.,  surg.  U.  S.  A.,  1856-67. 

von  Hermann,  C.  J.,  maj.  A.  A.  D.  C. ;  capt.  4th  Inf.,  1866. 

Hesselberger,  G.  A.,  2d  lieut.,  1866;   ist  lieut.  3d  Inf.,  1871. 

Hoelcke,  William,  German  army,  1849-51;  British  Legion  in  Cri 
mea;  ist  lieut.  Mo.  Vols. ;  ist  lieut.  39th  U.  S.,  1866-70. 

Hoffman,  Ernest  F.,  Royal  Engineers,  Berlin  ;  lieut.  Prussian  army, 
1844-56;  capt.  and  maj.  Italian  army;  2d  lieut.  35th  Inf.,  1867. 

Hoppy,  E.,  enl.  2d  Art.,  1854;   1st  lieut.  gth  Inf.,  1871 ;  retired. 

Ilges,  Guido,  I4th  Inf.,  1861  ;  lieut.-col.  gth  Inf.,  1871. 

Johnson,  Lewis,  loth  Ind.,  1861  ;  bvt.  brig.-gen.  U.  S.  Vols.,  1865  ; 
capt.  24th  Inf.,  1869. 

Kautz,  A.  V.,  ist  Ohio,  1846;  2d  lieut.  4th  Inf.,  1852;  capt.  6th  Cav., 
1861 ;  col.  2d  Ohio  Cav.,  1862;  brig.-gen.  Vols.,  1864;  bvt.  maj.- 
gen.,  1865;  col.  8th  Inf.,  1874. 

Keller,  J.  W.,  6th  Mass.,  1861 ;  ist  lieut.  42d  Inf.,  1866;  capt.  retired 
list,  1870. 

Keye,  F.,  2d  lieut.  loth  Inf.,  1869. 

Koerper,  E.  A.,  surg.  75th  Pa.,  U.  S.  A.,  1867. 

Kopp,  William,  1st  lieut.  Washington  Territory  Vols.,  1862;  ist  lieut 
1 3th  Inf.,  1867. 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  2?$ 

Kramer,  A.,  2d  Dragoons,  1857;  capt.  15th  Penna.  Cav.,  1862;  capt. 

6th  Cav.,  1874. 
Kroutinger,  A.  W.,  enl.  2d   Inf.,  1848;  capt.   2d   Inf.,    1864;  retired 

1879. 
Liedtke,  F.  W.,  nth  Penna.,  1861  ;  2d  lieut.  430!  Inf.,  1866;   ist  Inf., 

1871. 

Lockwood,  T.  A.,  2d  lieut.  iyth  Inf.,  1880. 
von   Luettwitz,  A.  H.,  54th   N.  Y.,  1862;   ist  lieut.   3d  Cav.,    1874; 

retired  1879. 

Luhn,  G.  L.,  enl.  1853;  capt.  4th  Inf.,  1875. 
Magnitzky,   G.,  2Oth  Mass.,    1861  ;  capt.    1864;  2cl  lieut.   I4th   Inf., 

1870;  retired  1871. 
Mahnken,  John    H.,    ist   N.    Y.    Cav.;     ist   lieut     8th  U.   S.    Cav., 

1877. 
Meinhold,   Charles,    3d   Cav.,    1862;    capt.    3d    Cav.,    1866;    died 

1877. 

Merkle,  Charles  F.,  ist  lieut.  4th  Art.,  1862. 
Meyer,  Martin,  capt.  I2th  Inf.,  1861. 

Meyers,  Edward,  2d  lieut.  ist  Cav.,  1862;  7th  Cav.,  1866. 
Michaelis,  O.  E.,  23d  N.  Y. ;  capt.  Ordnance, '1874. 
von  Michalowsky,  T.  B.,  2d  lieut.  ist  Art.,  1861 ;   ist  lieut.,  1863. 
Motz,  John,  ist  lieut.  nth  Inf.,  1847. 
Orlemann,  L.  H.,  103(1,  and  capt.  iigth  N.  Y. ;   1st  lieut.  loth  Cav., 

1867;  retired  1879. 

Patzki,  J.  H.,  surg.  I5th  N.  Y. ;  capt.,  asst.  surg.  U.  S.  A.,  1869. 
Paulus,  Jacob,  5th  and  5oth  Penna.;  2d  lieut.  i8th  U.  S.  Inf.;  capt. 

25th  Inf.,  1873. 
Phisterer,  F.,  2cl  lieut.  i8th  Inf.,  1861 ;  capt.  361)1  Inf.  and   7th  Inf., 

1869. 

Quentin,  J.  E.,  capt.  1030!  N.  Y.;   1st  lieut.  14th  Inf.,  1867. 
Rawolle,  W.  C.,  2d  lieut.   2d  N.  Y.  Art.,   1861  ;  2d  lieut.  2d  Cav., 

1868;  adjt.,  1878;  capt.,  1880. 


276  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

Reichmann,  Carl,  enl.  1881;  2d  lieut.  24th  Inf.,  1884. 
Renaldo,  H.  O.,  2cl  lieut.  gth  Inf.,  1861 ;   1st  lieut.,  1863. 
Rendlebrock,  J.,  enl.   1851;  2d   lieut.  4th  Cav.,    1862;  capt.,  1867; 

retired  1879. 
Ritzius,  H.  P.,  5th  N.  Y.,  1861 ;  maj.  52d  N.  Y.,  1864;   ist  lieut.  25th 

Inf.,  1875. 

Roemer,  Paul,  enl.  5th  Art.,  1858;   ist  lieut.,  1866. 
Ruhlen,  George,  ist  lieut.  I7th  Inf.,  1876. 
Sachs,  H.,  2d  lieut.  3d  Cav.,  1861. 
Schaurte,  F.  W.,  2d  lieut.  2d  Cav.,  1862;  capt.,  1866. 
von  Schirach,  F.   C.,   54*    N.  Y.,  1861 ;   1st  lieut.  430!  Inf.,   1866; 

retired  1870. 
von   Schrader,  Alexander,  2d  lieut.  nth  Inf.,   1866;  maj.  39th   Inf., 

1866;  died  1867. 

Schreyer,  George,  2d  lieut.  6th  Cav.,  1866. 
Schultze,  Thilo,  I2th  Mo.,  1865  ;  2d  lieut.  I4th  Inf.,  1865. 
Schwann,  Theo.,  enl.,  1857;  capt.  nth  Inf.,  1866. 
Sellmer,  Charles,  enl.  1854;  capt.  nth  Me.,  1862;   1st  lieut.  3d  Art., 

1877. 

Simon,  Charles,  2d  lieut.  5th  Art.,  1862;   ist  lieut.,  1866. 
Smith,  John  E.,  col.  45th  111. ;  col.  27th  Inf.,  1866;  retired  1881. 
Smith,  Thos.,  enl.  1867;  first  lieut.  I5th  Inf.,  1877. 
Steinmetz,  William  R.,  capt.  and  asst.  surg.,  1871. 
Stelyes,  Claus,  2d  lieut.  4th  Art.,  1863. 
Sternberg,  Sig.,  2d  lieut.  27th  Inf.;  killed  1867. 
Stiebner,  Eugene;  army,  ist  Art.  Fort  Sumter,  1861 ;   1st  N.  Y.  Art., 

1862;  3d  Penna.,  1863;   i6th  N.  Y.,  1864;  2cl  lieut.   I5th  Inf., 

1865  ;   ist  lieut.  33d  Inf. 
Stommel,  Julius,  4ist  N.  Y. ;    2d  lieut.  43d  Inf.,  1866;    1st  lieut., 

1869. 

Syberg,  Arnold,  capt.  nth  Inf.,  1847. 
Thibaut,  F.  W.,  2d  lieut.  7th  N.  Y.,  1861 ;   1st  lieut.  6th  Inf.,  1868. 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  2/7 

Thies,  F.,  enl.  1866;  2d  lieut.  3d  Inf.,  1873. 

Urban,  Gustavus,  army;  2d  lieut.  5th  Cav. ;  capt.,  1866. 

Valois,  Gustavus,  capt.  4th  Md.,  1862;  capt.  9th  Cav.,  1884. 

Veitenheimer,    Carl,    74th    Penna. ;    2d   lieut.    4th    Inf.;    1st   lieut., 

1866.  , 

Vermann,  Otto,  2d  lieut.  1 3th  Inf.,  1866. 
Wagner,  Henry,  enl.  1856;  2d  lieut.  nth   Inf.,  1863;  capt.  1st   Cav., 

1869. 
Walbach,  John  de  B.,  1st  lieut.  Cav.,  1799;  col.  4th  Art.,  1842;  died 

1857- 

Warrens,  C.  N.,  1st  lieut.  4th  Mo.,  1861 ;  capt.  14*  Inf.,  1883. 
Wedemeyer,  W.  G.,  enl.  1861 ;  capt.  i6th  Inf.,  1865. 
Wenckebach,   E.    F.,    2d    lieut.    1301    Inf.,    1865;    capt.    22d    Inf., 

1867. 
Wesendorff,  Max,   1st  lieut.  Washington  Territory  Vols.,   1862;    2d 

lieut.  24th  Inf.,  1867;  capt.  ist  Cav.,  1880. 
Wilhelmi,  Louis,  2d  lieut.  1st  Inf.,  1865;  ist  lieut.,  1880. 


The  following,  mainly  from  a  "  List  of  Field  Offi 
cers  of  U.  S.  Volunteers,"  were  of  German  birth  or 
descent: 

Abell,  Caspar  K.,  maj.  ;2d  N.  Y. 
Abell,  Charles  C.,  maj.  6th  N.  Y.  and  loth  N.  Y.  Art. 
Ahnstedt,  Henry,  col.  ist  Mo.;  2cl  Mo.  Lt.  Art. 
Alstrom,  John  V.,  maj.  3d  N.  J.  Cav. 
Ammen,  Jacob,  col.  I2th  Ohio, 
von  Amsberg,  George,  col.  45th  N.  Y. 
Anselm,  Albert,  lieut.-col.  3d  Mo. 
Arn,  F.,  maj.  3ist  Ind. 
Balling,  O.  H.  P.,  maj.  145111  N.  Y. 

24 


2/8  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER  IN  THE 

Banghof,  C.,  maj.  1st  Mo.  Cav. 
von  Baumbach,  C.,  maj.  24th  Wis. 
Bausenwein,  V.,  col.  58th  Ohio. 
Becht,  John  C.,  maj.  5th  Minn. 
Beck,  Arnold,  lieut.-col.  2d  Mo. 
Beck,  Christian,  lieut-col.  9th  Ind.  Cav. 
Beck,  Fred.,  maj.  io8th  Ohio. 
Beck,  William,  maj.  2yth  Mo. 
Becker,  Adolph,  lieut.-col.  46th  N.  Y. 
Becker,  Gottfried,  lieut.-col.  28th  Ohio. 
Becker,  Philip,  lieut.-col.  5th  Penna.  Cav. 
Behlendorff,  F.,  maj.  I3th  111. 
Bendix,  John  E.,  col.  7th  N.  Y. 
Bierbower,  F.,  maj.  4Oth  Ky. 
Blenker,  L.,  col.  8th  N.  Y. 
von  Blessing,  L.,  lieut.-col.  37th  Ohio, 
von  Boernstein,  Shaeffer,  col.  5th  Iowa  Cav. 
von  Borgersock,  R.,  col.  5th  Minn. 
Botchfur,  Hugo,  maj.  1st  Ark.  Cav. 
Bramlich,  Charles,  maj.  2d  Ark.  Inf. 
Brutsche,  John  D.,  lieut.-col.  8th  Mo.  Cav. 
Burger,  Louis,  col.  5th  N.  Y. 
Cantador,  lieut.-col.  27th  Pa. 
Degenfeld,  Christian,  col.  26th  Ohio. 
Deitzler,  George  W.,  col.  ist  Kansas. 
Diechman,  Julius,  maj.  I5th  N.  Y.  Heavy  Art. 
Dotze,  Aug.,  lieut.-col.  8th  Ohio  Cav. 
Duysing,  Emil,  lieut-col.  4ist  N.  Y. 
von  Egloffstein,  F.  W.,  col.  iO3d  N.  Y. 
Ehrler,  Francis,  lieut.-col.  2cl  Mo. 
von  Einsidel,  D.,  lieut.-col.  4ist  N.  Y. 
Erdelmeyer,  F.,  lieut.-col.  32d  Ind. 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  2/9 

Ernenwein,  C.,  lieut.-col.  2ist  Penna. 

Faltz,  Ernst  M.,  lieut.-col.  8th  Md. 

von  Forstner,  S.,  maj.  3d  N.  J.  Cav. 

Gaebel,  F.  A.  H.,  maj.  7th  N.  Y. 

Gellman,  F.,  lieut.-col.  58th  N.  Y. 

von  Gerber,  G.,  lieut.-col.  6th  Ind. 

Glapcke,  Herman,  maj.  22d  Conn. 

Goebel,  Chris.,  maj.  73d  Penna. 

Goelzer,  Aug.,  lieut.-col.  6oth  Ind. 

Gruesel,  Nich.,  col.  7th  111. 

von  Hammerstein,  H.,  col.  78th  N.  Y. 

Happel,  Christian,  lieut.-col.  loth  Mo. 

von  Hartung,  Adolph,  col.  74th  Penna. 

Hassendeubel,  F.,  col.  3d  Mo. 

Hedterich,  lieut.-col.  8th  N.  Y. 

Heinrichs,  Gus.,  lieut.-col.  4th  Mo.  Cav. 

Heintz,  R.,  maj.  28th  Ohio. 

Heintzleman,  M.  T.,  lieut.-col.  I72d  Penna. 

von  Helmrich,  G.,  lieut.-col.  5th  Mo.  Cav. 

Hequembourg,  A.  G.,  lieut.-col.  4Oth  Mo. 

Hequembourg,  W.  A.,  maj.  30!  Mo. 

Hundhausen,  Julius,  lieut.-col.  4th  Mo. 

Hundhausen,  Robert,  col.  4th  Mo. 

Jacobsen,  Aug.,  lieut.-col.  27th  Mo. 

Jaensch,  F.,  maj.  3 1st  Mo. 

Jussen,  Edm.,  lieut.-col.  230!  Wis. 

Kaercher,  Jac.,  lieut.-col.  I2th  Mo. 

Kahler,  F.  M.,  maj.  62d  Ohio. 

Kammerling,  Gus.,  col.  Qth  Ohio. 

von  Kielmansegge,  E.,  col.  4th  Mo.  Cav. ;   1st  Florida  Cav. 

Knobellsdorff,  Charles,  col.  44th  111. 

Knoderer,  Charles,  col.  i67th  Penna, 


280  THE    GERMAN  SOLDIER   IN   THE 

von  Koerber,  V.  E.,  maj.  ist  Md.  Cav. 

Kohler,  Jacob,  lieut.-col.  I2th  Penna.  Cav. 

Koltes,  John  A.,  col.  73d  Penna. 

Kozlay,  E.  A.,  col.  54th  N.  Y. 

Krekel,  Arnold,  maj.  Mo.  Batt'y. 

Kreutzer,  William,  lieut.-col.  gSth  N.  Y. 

Krez,  Cornel.,  col.  27th  Wis. 

Kummell,  A.  H.,  lieut.-col.  I3th  Wis. 

von  Kusserow,  C.,  lieut.-col.  2d  U.  S.  Vet.  Vols. 

Laiboldt,  Bernard,  col.  2d  Mo. 

Landgraeber,  Clemens,  maj.  2d  Mo.  Lt.  Art. 

Ledergerber,  F.  T.,  maj.  I2th  Mo. 

Leppien,  George  F.,  lieut.-col.  ist  Me.  Art. 

Mahler,  F.,.  col.  75th  Penna. 

von  Matzdorff,  A.,  lieut.-col.  75th  Penna. 

Mehler,  Adolph,  lieut.-col.  Q8th  Penna. 

Metternich,  G.,  lieut.-col.  46th  N.  Y. 

Minden,  von  Henning,  maj.  Hatch's  Batt'n  Minn.  Cav. 

von  Mitzel,  Alex.,  lieut.-col   74th  Penna. 

Moor,  Aug.,  col.  28th  Ohio. 

Mueller,  Charles,  lieut.-col.  io7th  Ohio. 

Osterhaus,  P.  J.,  col.  I2th  Mo. 

Perczel,  N.,  col.  loth  Iowa. 

Porchner,  F.,  col.  47th  Ohio. 

Possegger,  F.,  maj.  ist  N.  Y.  Cav. 

Reichard,  F.  H.,  maj.  l88th  Penna. 

Reichard,  George  N.,  lieut.-col.  I43d  Penna. 

Riedt,  Aug.,  maj.  27th  Penna. 

Rolshausen,  F.,  maj.  82d  111. 

Rosa,  Rudolph,  col.  46th  N.  Y. 

Rosengarten,  Adolph  G.,  maj.  I5th  Penna.  (Anderson)  Cav. 

Salm-Salm,  Prince,  col.  8th  N.  Y. 


WARS   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES.  28 1 

von  Schach,  G.  W.,  col.  7th  N.  Y. 

Schadt,  Otto,  lieut.-col.  I2th  Mo. 

Schaeffer,  F.,  col.  2d  Mo. 

von  Schickfus,  F.,  lieut.-col.  1st  N.  Y.  Cav. 

von  Schilling,  F.,  maj.  3d  Penna.  Art. 

Schimmelpfennig,  A.,  col.  74th  Penna. 

Schirmer,  L.,  col.,  15*  N.  Y. 

Schlittner,  Nich.,  col.  4th  Mo. 

von  Schluembach,  Alex.,  maj.  2Qth  N.  Y. 

Schnepf,  E.,  lieut.-col.^oth  N.  Y. 

Schoeffel,  F.  A.,  lieut.-col.  I3th  N.  Y. 

Schopp,  Phil.,  col.  75th  Penna. 

von  Schrader,  Alex.,  lieut.-col.  74th  Ohio. 

Schumacher,  F.,  maj.  21  st  Wis. 

Segebarth,  H.,  maj.  3d  Penna.  Art. 

Seidel,  C.  B.,  col.  3d  Ohio  Cav. 

Seidel,  G.  A.,  maj.  7th  N.  Y. 

Seidlitz,  Hugo,  maj.  27th  Penna. 

Soest,  Clemens,  col.  2pth  N.  Y. 

Sondersdorff,  C.,  lieut.-col.  Qth  Ohio. 

Stahel,  Julius,  col.  8th  N.  Y. 

von  Steinhausen,  A.,  lieut.-col.  68th  N.  Y. 

von  Steinwehr,  A.,  col.  2Qth  N.  Y. 

Stetzall,  lieut.-col.  I  ith  Penna.  Cav. 

Tafel,  Gust.,  lieut.-col.  io6th  Ohio.* 

Tassin,  A.  G.,  col.  35th  Ind. 

Thielemann,  Christian,  col.  i6th  111.  Cav. 

Thielemann,  Milo,  maj.  i6th  111.  Cav. 

Thoman,  Max,  lieut.-col.  59th  N.  Y. 

Tiedemann,  D.  F.,  iieut-col.  iioth  U.  S.  Colored. 

von  Trebra,  H.,  col.  32d  Ind. 

von  Vegesach,  E.,  col.  2Oth  N.  Y. 


282  THE   GERMAN  SOLDIER. 

Veitenheimer,  Carl,  lieut.-col.  74th  Penna. 
Wagner,  Louis,  col.  88th  Penna. 
Wangelin,  Hugo,  col.  I2th  Mo. 
Weber,  Max,  col.  2oth  N.  Y. 
von  Wedell,  Carl,  maj.  68th  N.  Y. 
Wilhelm,  lieut.-col.  23d  Penna. 
Willich,  A.,  col.  32d  Ind. 
Zakrzenski,  H.,  lieut-col.  2d  Mo. 


ADDENDA. 


SINCE  the  foregoing  pages  were  printed,  Mr.  Ad. 
Kiefer,  formerly  adjutant  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Sixty-seventh  Pennsylvania  Volunteers,  has  furnished 
the  following  notices  of  German  officers  who  served 
with  credit  in  the  army  of  the  United  States  during 
the  war  for  the  Union,  viz., — 

Lorenz  Cantador,  born  in  Diisseldorf  about  1815, 
served  for  some  years  as  an  officer  in  the  Prussian 
Landwehr,  took  a  not  unimportant  part  in  the  political 
uprising  of  1848  in  the  Rhenish  Provinces,  came  to 
Philadelphia  about.  1 851,  went  into  the  volunteer 
service  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Twenty-seventh 
Pennsylvania,  under  Bushbeck,  and  died  in  New 
York  in  1880. 

Adolph  Dengler,  born  in  Baden  about  1825,  took 
part  in  the  revolution  in  1849  in  that  state,  came  to 
the  United  States  in  1850,  entered  the  service  in  a 
Missouri  regiment  as  captain  in  1861,  and  as  colonel 

283 


284  ADDENDA. 

of  the  regiment  at  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  was 
wounded  and  shortly  after  died.  He  was  an  earnest, 
single-minded  patriot,  and  a  conspicuously  gallant 
soldier. 

Hugo  Dilger,  probably  the  most  brilliant  German 
officer  of  the  war,  familiarly  known  in  the  war  corre 
spondence  of  the  time  as  "  Leather-breeches,"  com 
manded  an  independent  Ohio  battery  during  the  war, 
and  therefore  never  obtained  a  higher  rank  than  that 
of  captain,  but  more  brilliant  service,  and  more  of  it, 
was  not  rendered  by  any  officer  of  German  birth.  He 
resigned  a  lieutenancy  in  the  Baden  Mounted  Artillery 
to  take  part  in  the  American  civil  war,  and  after  the 
war  became  a  farmer  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  of 
Virginia.  (See  p.  253.) 

Philip  Schopp  was  born  in  Bavaria  in  1828,  and 
was  engaged  in  the  revolution  of  1848—49;  came  to 
the  United  States  in  1850,  was  employed  as  a  civil 
engineer  in  Pennsylvania  until  1861,  raised  a  com 
pany  for  the  Seventy-fifth  Pennsylvania  Volunteers, 
(Bohlen's  regiment),  and  was  made  by  General 
Bohlen  his  assistant  adjutant-general,  and  afterwards 
colonel  of  the  Seventy-fifth,  which  he  led  through 
Pope's  campaign.  After  the  war  he  again  became 
a  civil  engineer  in  the  West. 

Max  Weber  was  a  promising  young  officer  of  the 
Baden  army,  when  the  revolution  of  1849,  in  which 


ADDENDA.  285 

he  took  part  as  commander  of  a  battalion,  drove  him 
into  exile.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  he 
was  appointed  colonel  of  the  Twentieth  New  York 
(Turner)  Regiment;  for  his  services  at  the  capture 
of  Norfolk  and  of  Hatteras  he  was  made  brigadier- 
general  of  volunteers  early  in  1862;  at  the  battle  of 
Antietam  a  severe  wound  disabled  him  and  thus  cut 
off  a  career  that  gave  promise  of  great  brilliancy, 
He  received  enthusiastic  praise  from  his  corps  com 
mander.  (See  p.  218.) 

Hetterick,  born  in  the  Palatinate  about  1815, 

in  the  military  service  of  Greece  for  a  short  time 
with  Blenker,  served  under  him  as  major  and  lieu 
tenant-colonel  of  the  Eighth  New  York  Volunteers, 
was  both  in  character  and  appearance  an  ideal  vieux 
sabreur.  He  died  in  poverty  a  few  years  after  the 
close  of  the  war. 

Adolph  Engelmann  (see  p.  231)  was  the  son  of 
Frederick  Theodore  Engelmann,  who  took  an  active 
part  in  the  revolution  of  1833.  He  was  born  in 
Jusboch,  Bavaria,  in  1825,  and  came  to  this  country 
with  his  parents  in  1834.  He  served  in  the  Mexican 
war,  and  was  wounded  at  Buena  Vista.  In  1849  he 
went  to  Germany  with  Hecker,  but  the  revolution 
was  over.  He  served  through  the  war  with-  Denmark, 
returned  to  America,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war  became  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Forty-third 


286  ADDENDA. 

Illinois  Volunteers,  and  was  for  a  time  in  command 
of  a  brigade.  He  was  appointed  postmaster  of  Belle 
ville,  Illinois,  in  1885,  by  President  Cleveland,  and 
served  until  1889.  He  died  at  his  home,  Shiloh 
Valley,  Illinois,  in  September,  1890. 


INDEX* 


Aaronsburg,  von,  33. 

Abel,  J.,  152. 

Adenbousch,  J.  N.,  189. 

Alabama,  189. 

Allstrom,  3d  N:  Y.  Cav.,  252. 

Almstedt,  1st  Mo.  Cav.,  245. 

Alner,  J.,  152. 

Ammen,  Gen.  J.,  166,  253. 

Amsberg,    von,    7th  N.   Y.,  205, 

218,  224. 

Annecke,  F.,  34th  Wis.,  181,  258. 
Anselm,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 
Anspach,  P.,  2cl  N.  Y.  Art.,  137. 
App,  M.,  154. 
Armlinsen,  von,  La.,  188. 
Arndt,  J.,  154,  230. 
Asboth,  197. 
Aschmann,  R.,  259. 

Bachmann,  W.  K.,  S.  C.,  185. 
Backoff,  Mo.  Art.,  245. 


Bahncke,  La.,  188. 

Ballier,  gSth  Pa.,  204,  209. 

Baltzel,  C.,  100. 

Barringer,  Gen.  R.,  37. 

Bauer,  104. 

Baum,  75. 

Baumann,  106,  136,  188. 

Baumer,  1st  Neb.  Vet.  Cav.,  248. 

Bausenwein,  58th  Ohio,  253. 

Becht,  J.  C.,  5th  Minn.,  239. 

Becker,  124,  155,  219. 

Bendix,  J.  E.,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  217. 

Bentinck,  21. 

Benzler,  F.,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  219. 

Bergmann,  C.  H.,  S.  C.,  185. 

Bergmeier,  B.,  Va.,  188. 

Bernays,  L.  C.,  240. 

Bethan,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 

Beyer,  P.,  154. 

Biebel,  6th  Conn.,  238. 

Bierbower,  F.,  4Oth  Ky.,  239. 


*  Prepared  by  Ch.  Grosse,  translator  of  the  German  edition. 

287 


288 


INDEX. 


Bierer,  E.s  i;ist  Pa.,  211. 
Biesenbusch,  Tex.,  187. 
Bilderbach,  C.,  15. 
Bitzel,  A.,  Va.,  188. 
Blandowsky,  C.,  243. 
Blankenburg,  181,  224. 
Blenker,   Gen.,   8th   N.   Y.,   192, 

200,  218,  223. 

Blessing,  von,  37th  Ohio,  255. 
Block,  153. 
Bliicher,  177. 

Boecht,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 
Boernstein,  C.    S.   de,  5th    Iowa 

Cav.,  236. 

Bohlander,  i65th  Ohio,  253. 
Bohlen,   H.,  75th  Pa.   Vol.,  204, 

214. 

Bollabaker,  H.,  154. 
Boone,  124. 
Borcke,  H.  von,  179. 
Borgersock,  R.  von,  239. 
Bornstein,     H.,     2cl     Mo.    Vol., 

240. 

Bose,  82. 
Bosi,  Tex.,  187. 
Bouquet,  Gen.,  1 6,  21,  126. 
Bowman,  A.,  156. 
Boyer,  100. 
Brandenburg,  85. 
Brehm,  21. 

Brenholz,  5oth  Pa.,  208. 
Brestel,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 


Breymann,  75- 

Brickel,  ist  N.  Y.  Art.,  230. 

Bromme,  261. 

Bruchs,  115. 

Bruckner,  73d  Pa.,  215. 

Briihl,  241. 

Brummenstadt,  La.,  188. 

Buggenhagen,   von,    7th    N.   Y., 

224. 

Bunner,  100,  102. 
Burckhardt,  103,  106. 
Burger,  188,  218. 
Biirstenbinder,  67th  Ohio,  253. 
Bush,  Ph.,  154. 
Bushbeck,  Gen.  A.,  27th  Pa.,  204, 

213. 

Chorman,  224. 
Christern,  La.,  188. 
Cincinnati,  Society  of,  136. 
Claus,  Daniel,  47. 
Closen,  von,  143. 
Colorado,  230. 
Connecticut,  238. 
Conrad,  181,  245. 
Cordes,  T.,  S.  C.,  184. 
Cornehlsen,  C  ,  182. 
Corvin,  8th  N.  Y.,  224. 
Cramer,  J.,  101. 
Crowle,  J.,  154. 

Custer,  Gen.  G.  A.,  2d  Cav.,  U. 
S.  A.,  172. 


INDEX. 


289 


Danzer,  C,  240. 

Darr,  253. 

Barrel,  La.,  188. 

Dasher,  53. 

Degenfeld,  -26jh  Ohio,  255,  256. 

Deitzler,  1st  Kan.  Inf.,  244. 

Dernier,  H.,  2d  N.  Y.  Art.,  137. 

Derr,  M.,  154. 

Desenderfer,  D.,  101. 

Dettweiler,  H.,  6th  Ky.,  256. 

Deutsch,  von,  4ist  Mo.,  245,  258. 

Deux-Ponts,  Count,  142. 

Dickel,  29th  N.  Y.,  228. 

Dieck,  H.,  230. 

Diemann,  von,  73. 

Diemar,  von,  77. 

Dieskau,  Baron  L.  A.,  40. 

Dietrich,  4ist  N.  Y.  Vol.,  228. 

Dilger,  Ohio  Batt'y,  253. 

Dillman,  G.,  153. 

Ditfurth,  von,  153. 

Dolba,  J.  K.,  89. 

Domiller,  M.,  154. 

Donel,  C.,  153. 

Donop,  65,  153. 

Doster,  W.,  4th  Pa.  Cav.,  212. 

Dotze,  A.,  8th  Ohio,  255. 

Dreer,  F.  E.,  107,  115. 

Dreisbach,  104. 

Dresel,  241. 

Duden,  262. 

Duer,  W.,  163. 


Dufford,  J.,  154. 
Dupont,  G.,  126. 

Eelking,  Max  von,  54. 

Egly,  241. 

Eichel,  53. 

Eichholz,  La.,  1 88. 

Eickhoff,  A.,  181. 

Elbert,  36. 

Emmerich,  A.,  55,  73. 

Engelhard,  J.  A.,  189. 

Engelhart,  153. 

Engelmann,  A.,  42d  111.,  231. 

Ermentrout,  D.,  13.     . 

Esebeck,  141. 

Estvan,  B.,  180. 

Ewald,  78,  82,  143. 

Ezbech,  115. 

Faesch,  R.,  21. 

Farmer,  155. 

Fassbinder,  La.,  188. 

Feese,  Ph.,  153. 

Fersen,  Count,  115,  143. 

Fischer,  F.,  150. 

Fish,  N.,  136. 

Flournoy,  Tex.,  187. 

Forstner,  S.  von,  3d  N.  J.  Cav. 

251. 

Frank,  P.,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  219. 
Freilich,  T.,  2d  N.  Y.,  137. 
Fremder,  S.  C.,  185. 


290 


INDEX. 


Freudenberg,   C.  G.,  52d   N.   Y. 

Inf.,  219. 

Frey,  E.,  82d  111.,  234. 
Frick,  124. 
Fridebach,  La.,  188. 
Fritz.  3d  Mo.  Res.,  245. 
Froes,  154. 
Frutches,  154. 
Fry,  G.,  154. 

Fry,  Gen.  J.  B.,  U.  S.  A.,  192. 
Furmann,  J.,  ist  N.  Y.,  137. 
Ftirst,  ist  W.  Va.  Art.,  256. 

Cans,  R.  M.,  189. 

Garwin,  O.  C.,  52d    N.  Y.    Inf., 

219. 

Gau,  143. 

Gaudain,  A.  von,  236. 
Gause,  L.  C.,  189. 
Gellman,  29th  N.  Y.,  228. 
Gerber,  224,  238. 
Gerdes,  La.,  188. 
Gerke,  262. 
Giese,  253. 
Gillon,  126. 
Gilsa,  L.    von,  4ist   N.  Y.,    205, 

218,  224,  228. 
Gist,  144. 

Glassbeck,  von,  36. 
Glichner,  Ch.,  101.       * 
»        Gneisenau,  120. 
Gob,  L.,  154. 


Goebel,  ;th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 

Graff,  G.,  154. 

Graffenried,  32,  130. 

Greble,  J.  T.,  2d  Art.,  173. 

Grelsbalk,  H.,  154. 

Gremeth,  J.,  101. 

Greusel,  N.,  36th  111.,  231. 

Gries,  io4th  Pa.,  208. 

Griesinger,  T.  191. 

Groeben,  von  der,  8th  N.  Y.,  224. 

Groff,  Tex.,  187. 

Grohmann,  265. 

Gruber,  L,  154. 

Gumbart,  233. 

Haake,  142,  220,  244. 
Haas,  de,  101,  139,  144. 
Hafner,  Tex.,  187. 
Hagar,  J.,  153. 
Hagner,  166. 
Hahn,  M.,  177. 
Haller,  H.,  151. 
Hambright,  158,  176. 
Hanke,  Tex.,  187. 
Hanleiter,  C.  R.,  189. 
Harms,  H.,  S.  C.,  184. 
Harpe],  J.,  154. 
Hartmann,  J.  A.,  150. 
Hartranft,  5 1st  Pa.,  204,  209. 
Hassaurek,  F.,  241.  4 

Hassendeubel,  F.,  3d   Mo.,  244, 
245- 


INDEX. 


29I 


Haupt,  Gen.  H.,  166. 
Haurand,  A.,  224. 
Hausner,  La.,  188. 
Haussegger,  N.,  103,  138. 
Hecker,   F.,    82d  111.,   205,   231, 

233- 

Heer,  von,  105,  139,  155. 
Heeringen,  von,  72. 
Hehn,  36,  101. 
Heib,  Jost,  34. 
Heileman,  J.  F.,  165. 
Heine,  W.,  174. 
Heinrich,  124. 
Heintzelman,  S.  P.,  167. 
Heister,  13,  65,  72,  149,  153,  154. 
Helfenstein,  52,  156. 
Helmrich,   von,   4th     Mo.    Cav., 

189,  246. 
Helsley,  J.,  153. 
Helvenstein,  A.  H.,  189. 
Hendricks,  W.,  105,  224. 
Henkelmann,  99. 
Hequembourg,  3d  Mo.,  245. 
Herchheimer,  Gen.,  46,  128,  150. 
Herkimer,  Joh.  Jost,  46,  47. 
Hermann,  von,  177- 
Hermsdorf,  51. 
Hertzog,  225. 
Herzberg,  3d  N.  J.,  251. 
Hesse,  22. 
Hessher,  A.,  154. 
Hexamer,  1st  N.  J.  Art.,  249. 


Hocheimer,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 
Hoffman,  Ohio  Batt'y,  253. 
Hofmann,  Gen.  J.  W.,  56th  Pa., 

204,  212. 

Hogenbach,  H.,  154. 
Hoke,  189. 
Hollenback,  La.,  188. 
Holsendorf,  W.,  53. 
Holtzclaw,  J.  T.,  i8th  Ala.,  189. 
Holtzendorff,  von,  112. 
Hotaling,  2d  111.  Cav.,  232. 
House,  N.,  153. 
Howelman,  149. 
Hubley,  B.,  100. 
Huff,  154. 
Huger,  112. 

Hundehausen,  4th  Mo.  Res.,  245. 
Huth,  La.,  188. 

Illinois,  231. 
Indiana,  238. 
Ingen,  von,  22. 
Iowa,  235. 
Isenhart,  J.,  154. 

Jackson,  I5th  Me.  Art.,  242. 
Jacobi,  9th  Wis.,  257,  258. 
Jaulmann,  P.  137. 

Kalb,  de,  54,  102,  109,  no,  128. 
Kallmann,  2d  Mo.  Res.,  245. 
Kalteisen,  M.,  125. 


292 


INDEX. 


Kammerling,  Qth  Ohio,  253. 

Kapff,  E.,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 

Kapp,  F.,  38. 

Karge,  J.,  2d.  N.  J.  Cav.,  251. 

Karples,  520!  N.  Y.  Inf.,  220. 

Kasouzki,  L.,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  219. 

Kautz,  Gen.  A.  V.,  171,  253. 

Kehrwald,  La.,  188. 

Keibler,  L.,  154. 

Keil,  262. 

Keller,  C.,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 

Kellermann,  Gen.  de,  161. 

Kentucky,  239. 

Kerchner,  A.,  154. 

Kern,  P.,  154. 

Kersshler,  M.,  154. 

Kielmansegge,    von,    4oth     Ky., 

239- 

Klaedon,  Tex.,  187. 
Kleefisch,  2gth  N.  Y.,  228. 
Klein,  219,  238. 
Kleinbeil,  22. 

Kleisser,  von,  7th  N.  Y.,  224. 
Klingelhoffer,  160,  265. 
Kloch,  J.,  150. 
Knierim,  1st  N.  Y.  Art.,  230. 
Knobelsdorff,  44th  111.,  231,  251. 
Knoderer,  C.  A.,  i68th  Pa.  Vol., 

205,  208. 

Knyphausen,  Gen.  von,  55,  72. 
Koch,  H.,  236. 
Kochlein,  P.,  152,  154. 


Koenig,  La.,  188. 

Kohler,  gSth  Pa.,  208. 

Kollmauer,  Tex.,  187. 

Koltes,  Gen.  J.  A.,  73^  Pa.,  215. 

Koning,  Tex.,  187. 

Kopfli,  262. 

Koppinger,  J.,  153. 

Korber,  von,  1st  Ky.  Cav.,  239. 

Korner,  G.,  43d  111.,  231,  262. 

Koseritz,  253. 

Kospoth,  von,  80. 

Kozlay,  29th  N.  Y.,  228. 

Kramer,  3d  N.  J.,  251. 

Krekel,  A.,  241. 

Krez,  C.,  27th  Wis.,  258. 

Kruelling,  21. 

Kryzanowsky,  54th  N.  Y.,  228. 

Kuntze,  Dr.,  35. 

Kusserow,  von,  7th  N.  Y.,  224, 

230. 

Kutzner,  39th  Mo.,  245. 
Kydle,  A.,  153. 

Lachenmeyer,  La.,  188. 
Laibold,  2d  Mo.,  245. 
Lange,  A.,  238. 
Langenheim,  W.,  177. 
Lasher,  J.,  152. 
Lederer,  14,  183. 
Ledergerber,  234. 
Lehmann,  188,  21 1. 
Leisler,  Jacob,  9. 


INDEX. 


293 


Leister,  253. 

Leonards,  W.,  152. 

Leppien,  G.  F.,  ist  Me.  Art.,  240. 

Lichtenstein,  Ph.  C.,  52d  N.  Y., 

219.    ^ 
Lieber,  167. 

Limberg,  io8th  Ohio,  253. 
Linkensdorff,  de,  103. 
Lissingen,  153. 
Lohr,  154. 
Lord,  S.,  S.  C.,  184. 
Lossberg,  Gen.  von,  99. 
Louisiana,  188. 
Loy,  M.,  154.  . 
Ludwick,  Ch.,  139. 
Luettwitz,  177. 
Luther,  166. 
Lutterloh,  128,  136. 
Lutz,  150,  154,  238. 
Liitzenberg,  254. 

Mahem,  36. 

Mahler,  2gth  N.  Y.,  228. 

Maine,  239. 

Mangold,  188. 

Mann,  2d  111.  L.  Art.,  233. 

Markgraf,  Ohio  Art.,  253. 

Marks,  J.,  154. 

Marold,  G.  T.,  Tex.,  187. 

Marschall,  Dr.  L.,  158. 

Matthes,  236. 

Mauser,  J.,  154. 


Mausher,  Kaspar,  50. 
Melchers,  F.,  S.  C,  185. 
Memmipger,  R.  W.,  182. 
Mentges,  105,  155. 
Mergenthaler,  230. 
Meserly,  C.,  153. 
Messerschmidt,  J.  C.,  52d  N.  Y. 

Inf.,  219. 

Meyer,  io7th  Ohio,  253. 
Michalowsky,  177. 
Michigan,  240. 
Miller,  153,  154. 
Minden,    H.    von,    Minn.     Cav., 

239- 
Mindil,  Gen.  G.  W.,  330!  N.  J., 

250. 

Minnesota,  239. 
Minnigerode,  von,  80,  153. 
Mintzer,  Ch.,  154. 
Mirbach,  von,  153. 
Moegling,  nth  Conn.,  238. 
Mohring,  C.,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  219. 
Moltke,  Count  von,  224. 
Moor,  A.,  28th  Ohio,  253. 
Mordecai,  A.,  171. 
Morgan,  D.,  101. 
Muehleck,  730!  Pa.,  215. 
Muhlenberg,  Henry  Melchior,  26. 
Muhlenberg,  29,  91,  156. 
Miiller,  La.,  188. 
Munch,  239,  240. 
Miinchhausen,  von,  113. 


294 


INDEX. 


Myers,  Ch.,  loo. 
Mytinger,  J.,  105. 

Nast,  Thomas,  222. 
Nauman,  G.,  166. 
Nebraska,  246. 
Nechtritz,  104. 
Neighast,  Ch.,  154. 
Neslett,  P.,  N.  Y,  Art.,  137. 
New  Jersey,  248. 
New  York,  217. 
Nieswanger,  P.,  15. 
Nisie,  154. 

Nohrden,  C.,  S.  C.,  183. 
North,  W.,  106. 
North  Carolina,  182. 

Ochs,  Gen.  von,  121. 

Ohio,  252. 

Olshausen,  T.,  2d  Mo.  Vol.,  240. 

Orff,  H.,  35th  Wis.,  258. 

Osband,  111.  Art.,  233. 

Osterhaus,  Gen.  P.  J.,  I2th  Mo., 

232,  243,  245. 

Ottendorff,  N.  D.  von,  103,  148. 
Overfeld,  R.,  154. 

Passegger,  225. 
Pennsylvania,  203. 
Pennypacker,    Gen.    C.,    Qth    Pa. 

Vol.,  204. 
Perczel,  N.,  loth  Iowa,  236. 


Peres,  P.,  Germ.  Rgt.,  103. 

Peters,  La.,  188. 

Petz,  de,  La.,  188. 

Pfaender,    W.,    2d    Minn.    Cav., 

239- 

Pfeiffer,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 
Pfeil,  Dr.,  113. 

Pionier,  der  Deutsche,  128,  240. 
Poe,  146. 

Porschner,  47th  Ohio,  253. 
Post,  Christian  F.,  31. 
Poten,  4th  Mo.,  245. 
Prux,  W.,  101. 
Pury,  P.,  33. 
Puttkammer,  von,  7th  N.  Y.,  224. 

Quitman,  Gen.  J.  A.,  159. 

Rabenhorst,  33. 

Rabolt,  J.,  101. 

Rachnitz,  261. 

Radowitz,  von,  7th  N.  Y.,  224. 

Rahl,  67. 

Raith,J.  C,  43^  HI-,  231. 

Ratterman,  H.  A.,  14,  141. 

Ratzer,  22,  153. 

Reefer,  A.,  154. 

Reitmeier,  La.,  188. 

Retzius,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  220. 

Reynolds,  F.  C.,  241. 

Rice,  W.,  100. 

Richter,  254. 


INDEX. 


295 


Riedesel,  Gen.  F.  A.  von,  54,  68. 
Riefner,  G.,  15. 
Ritzema,  R.,  151. 
Robenhorst,  La.,  188. 
Roebling,  W.  A.,  252. 
Roland,  1 66. 
Rombauer,  234. 
Rose,  J.,  3d  Reg.,  105. 
Roselius,  Ch.,  184,  254. 
Rosenbaum,  La.,  188. 
Rosengarten,     A.     G.,    I5th    Pa. 

Cav.,  3. 

Rosenheimer,  Tex.,  187. 
Rosenthal,  G.  von,  15,  102. 
Rosenvelt,  124. 
Rost,  254. 
Rothe,  E.,  241. 
Rudolph,  M.,  36. 
Rueger,  J.,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  219. 
Ruhl,  La.,  188. 
Rumelin,C.,  241. 
Runge,  G.  H.  W.,  N.  C.,  182. 
Riistow,  181. 

Sabath,  Tex.,  187. 
Salm-Salm,  Prince,  205,  223. 
Salomon,  245,  257. 
Sander,  C.,  181,  246. 
Sarasin,  Tex.,  187. 
Sauer,  Christopher,  27. 
Schach,  G.  von,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf., 
217,  224. 


Schaefer,  245,  251. 

Schall,  5 ist  Pa.,  208. 

Scheff,  J.  W.,  45. 

Scheibert,  179. 

Scheppert,  126. 

Scherer,  E.,  I2ist  Pa.  Vol.,  206. 

Scherf,  261. 

Schickfuss,  F.  von,  224. 

Schimmelpfennig,    2gth    N.    Y., 

228. 

Schirach,  von,  177. 
Schirmer,  224,  228. 
Schlatter,  Rev.  Michael,  22,  25. 
Schleicher,  G.,  177,  190. 
Schleuning,  Tex.,  187. 
Schlittner,  4th  Mo.,  245. 
Schnake,  F.,  240. 
Schneider,  13,  54,  188. 
Schnepf,  E.,  2oth  N.  Y.,  218. 
Schoening,   O.    von,  52d    N.  Y. 

Inf.,  219. 

Schonleber,  7th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 
Schopf,  Dr.  J.  D.,  91. 
Schott,  101,  104,  155,  215. 
Schrader,  A.  von,  74th  Ohio,  176, 

224,  253. 

Schrauder,  Ph.,  100,  103. 
Schriver,  Gen.  E.,  166. 
Schiibing,  254. 
Schulken,  182. 

Schultze,  G.,  52d  N.  Y.  Jnf.,  219. 
Schulz,  F.  C.,  189. 


296 


INDEX. 


Schurz,  Carl,  149,  224,  247. 

Schiittner,  N.,  4th  Mo.,  242. 

Schiitzenbach,  Mo.  Art.,  245. 

Seidel,  3d  Ohio  Cav.,  255. 

Seidensticker,  137,  154. 

Selin,  A.,  101,  104. 

Shade,  154. 

Shepherd  (Schaefer),  15. 

Sherhagen,  Tex.,  187. 

Shifle,  J.,  153. 

Shiras,  Gen.  A.,  166. 

Shitz,  F.,  153. 

Shrupp,  H.,  1 01. 

Shutt,  J.,  153. 

Sieber,  37th  Ohio,  253. 

Siebeth,  3d  N.  J.,  251. 

Sievers,  La.,  188. 

Sigel,  Gen.  Franz,  197,  200,  205, 

237,  246. 

Sigwald,  C.  B.,  S.  C.,  184. 
Slottner,  J.,  153. 
Small,  J.,  S.  C.,  184. 
Soest,  216. 

Sohm,  3d  N.  Y.  Cav.,  252. 
Sondersdorff,  9th  Ohio,  255. 
Spangler,  154. 
Spech,  H.,  101. 
Speiss,  J.,  154. 
Stahel,  205,  227. 
Stallo,  J.  B.,  241. 
Stark,  75. 
Stedingk,  Count  von,  143. 


Stegin,  J.  H.,  Ga.,  189. 

Steiner,  215. 

Steinwehr,  29th  N.  Y.,  218,  223, 

229. 

Stephani,  262. 
Stephens,  P.,  34. 
Steuben,  von,  54,   57,    115,   118, 

128,  136. 

Stidinger,  M.,  154. 
Stiell,  W.,  21. 

Stifel,  5th  Mo.  Res.,  234,  245. 
Stirk,  53,  54. 
Stirn,  von,  153. 
Stockholm,  A.,  152. 
Stoll,  3d  N.  J.,  251. 
Stolleman,  111.  Art.,  232. 
Storch,  Count  von,  224. 
Strautz,  von,  224. 
Strieker,  105,  154. 
Strickner,  103. 
Strohaker,  R.,  54. 
Stulpnagel,  3d  N.  J.,  251. 
Stump,  Ch.,  154. 
Stumpel,  34. 

Sturmfels,  29th  N.  Y.,  228. 
Sugart,  M.,  101. 
Swartz,  101,  154. 
Swayer,  A.,  153. 
Sybert,  Th.,  154. 

Tafel,  io6th  Ohio,  253. 
Tavergnier,  B.  de,  224. 


INDEX. 


297 


Texas,  187. 

Thielemann,  2d  111.  Cav.,  232. 
Ticbout,  H.,  ist  N.  Y.,  137. 
Tiedeman,  F.,  75th  Pa.,  216. 
Trebra,  von,  32d  Ind.,  224,  256. 
Trepp,  C,  259. 
Triesback,  J.,  154. 
Trumbach,  von,  153. 

Uchtritz,  von,  72. 

Uhl,  Tex.,  187. 

Utassy,  1 29th  N.  Y.,  227. 

Veltheim,  von,  224. 

Vezin,  214. 

Virginia,  187. 

Voegelin,  1st  N.  Y.  Art.,  230. 

Vollers,  H.,  182. 

Wagener,  F.  W.,  S.  C.,  185. 
Waggaman,  La.,  188,  189. 
Wagner,  Gen.  L.,  88th  Pa.  Vol., 

204,  247. 

Walbach,  J.  de  Earth,  160,  165. 
Walbrack,  La.,  188. 
Walpel,  3dN.  J.,25i. 
Walstein,  19. 
Wampler,  G.,  154. 
Wangelin,  1 2th  Mo.,  232,  245. 
Wangenheim,  J.  von,  91. 
Warburg,  La.,  1 88. 
Waring,  4th  Mo.  Cav.,  189. 


Warth,  Joh.,  15. 

Wassernagel,  La.,  188. 

Waul,  J.  N.,  189. 

Weber,  M.,  2Oth  N.  Y.,  218,  224. 

Weedon,  148. 

Weidknecht,  J.,  154. 

Wreidman,  101,  103. 

Weise,  1 88. 

Weiser,  13,  15,  38,  40,  102. 

Weiss,  F.,  20th  N.  Y.,  218. 

Weissenfels,  F.  W.   von,  21,  73, 

I3J>  J35- 
Weitzel,  51,   102,  105,  154,  175, 

253- 

Weltener,  L.,  ico,  103. 
Werner,  S.  C.,  185. 
Wert,  G.,  154. 

Wesseling,  4th  Mo.  Res.,  245. 
Wetterstrom,  21. 
Wetzel,  2d  N.  Y.,  137,  144. 
Weydemeyer,  4th  Mo.,  237,  245. 
Wiebische,  3d  N.  J.  Cav.,  252. 
Wieden,  von,  Gen.  Ger.,  148. 
Wilderich,  29th  N.  Y.,  228. 
Wile,  154. 

Wilhelm,  i8th  Pa.,  204. 
Will,  102. 
Willich,  Gen.  A.,  32d  Ind.,  238, 

256. 

Winkler,  26th  Wis.,  258. 
Winter,  22. 
Wisconsin,  257. 


298 


INDEX. 


Wister,  212. 

Wittgenstein,  Count  von,  115. 
Wittsteen,  21. 
Witzel,  Ludwig,  15. 
Witzig,  J.  J.,  4th  Mo.,  242. 
Woedtke,  F.  von  der,  128. 
Woelpper,  D.,  138. 
Woerner,  ist  N.  J.  Art.,  250. 
Wohlken,  H.,  S.  C.,  185. 
Wollrath,  La.,  188. 
Wratislau,  yth  N.  Y.  Inf.,  218. 
Wreden,  78. 

Wutschel,  29th  N.  Y.,  227. 
Wyche,  G.,  54- 

Yager,  W.  O.,  189. 


Yoder,  J.,  158. 
Young,  M.,  101. 

-Zahm,  3d  Ohio  Cav.,  253. 
Zedwitz,  von,  151. 
Zenger,  J.  P.,  u. 
Ziegler,  101,  124,  253. 
Zimmermann,  22. 
Zincken,  von,  La.,  188. 
Zinn,  I30th  Pa.,  208. 
Zirckel,  4th  Ohio,  255. 
Zollikoffer,  Gen.,  190. 
Zook,  52d  N.  Y.  Inf.,  219. 
Ztuni,  Tex.,  187. 
Zweibriicken,     Count     von, 


83, 


THE    END. 


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